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MONACO 
AND ITS RULERS 



THE ROMANCE OF 

MONACO 
AND ITS RULERS 



By 

ETHEL COLBURN MAYNE 

Author of "Enchanters of Men," etc. 



WITH TWENTY-SEVEN ILLUSTRATIONS 
INCLUDING A PHOTOGRAVURE PLATE 



NEW YORK 

JOHN LANE COMPANY 

MCMX 






PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN 



Gin 

Publisbesr 



MAR 2 t9n 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I 

Hercules and the Phoenicians — The Phocaeans, warfare, and the 
olive-tree — Some Roman Emperors, and Monaco's Patron-Saint 

pp. 3-17 

CHAPTER n 

The Barbarian Invasion — A Barbarian King — Narses the Eunuch 
and the Empress Sophia — The Lombards and Charlemagne — The 
Saracens and some Italian Kings — The first Grimaldis pp. 21-45 



CHAPTER III 

The Holy Roman Empire— Henry IV, Pope Gregory VII, Matilda 
of Tuscany, and Canossa — Guelfs and GhibeUines — Charles of 
Anjou — Some Grimaldi types : a troubadour, a miser, a spendthrift, 
a bully, and a coward pp. 49-81 

CHAPTER IV 

Charles Grimaldi — The Sovereignty of Monaco — The Day of 
Crecy — The Grimaldis lose Monaco — The story of Jane of Naples 

pp. 85-114 

CHAPTER V 

Sir John Hawkwood and his White Company — The capricious 
City of Genoa — Carmagnola and the horrible Siege of Cremona — 
A Grimaldi heroine at last — PommeHne and Claudine Grimaldi 

pp. 117-134 

CHAPTER VI 

" Le bon petit roy Charles " and his dream — Lodovico Sforza and 
Beatrice d'Este — Genoa and her ladies — Genoa and her nobles 
— Farewell to Genoa — The Age of Assassinations: Murder of Lucien 
Grimaldi . . . , pp. 137-161 

V 



vi Contents 



CHAPTER VII 

Augustin Grimaldi's vengeance — Louis XII and the ^* Doubles 
Etrennes" — Louise of Savoy and her Astrologer — Francis I of 
France and the Emperor Charles V — Augustin's rupture with France 
— The murder of Lucien Grimaldi avenged at last . pp. 165-187 

CHAPTER VIII 
The Revolt from Spain pp. 191-214 

CHAPTER IX 
" Madame de Monaco " pp. 217-231 

CHAPTER X 

The Lorraine alliance — The Wars of the Spanish Succession in 
France — The Goyon-Matignon marriage, and the extinction of the 
House of Grimaldi pur sang — A priceless brother-in-law, and some 
other relatives pp. 235-253 

CHAPTER XI 
Honor6 III and Catherine di Brignole-Sala . . pp. 257-272 

CHAPTER XII 

Death of the Duke of York at Monaco — Some Grimaldi marriages 
— The French Revolution — Monaco proclaims itself a Republie 

pp. 275-286 

CHAPTER XIII 

Honor6 IV and Honore V — The Sardinian Protectorate— The 
Monopoly of Bread pp. 289-305 

CHAPTER XIV 
Florestan I and the Revolt of Mentone . . . pp- 309-323 

CHAPTER XV 
Charles III — The reigning Prince and Princess . pp. 327-341 
INDEX pp. 343-370 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



CHARLOTTE DE GRAMONT 



MONACO : THE TOWN AND THE ROCK 



Photogravure Frontispiece 



OCTAVIUS 

THEODORIC THE GREAT 

CHARLES d'aNJOU, KING OF NAPLES 

RAINIER GRIMALDI 

JANE THE FIRST, QUEEN OF NAPLES 

BERTRAND DU GUESCLIN 

SIR JOHN HAWKWOOD . 

PHILIP-MARY VISCONTI . 

CHARLES THE EIGHTH, KING OF FRANCE 

BEATRICE d'eSTE 

LOUIS THE TWELFTH, KING OF FRANCE 
FRANCIS THE FIRST, KING OF FRANCE . 
MARY TUDOR, AND THE DUKE OF SUFFOLK 
LOUISE OF SAVOY, DUCHESSE d'aNGOUlI;ME 
CHARLES THE FIFTH, EMPEROR OF GERMANY 
LE DUC DE LAUZUN 
ANTOINE DE GRAMONT . 
MADAME GEOFFRIN 

LOUIS-JOSEPH DE BOURBON, PRINCE DE 
CHARLES ALBERT, KING OF SARDINIA 
MONACO : THE PRINCE'S PALACE . 
MONTE CARLO CASINO FROM THE SEA 
ALBERT, PRINCE OF MONACO 
ALICE, PRINCESS OF MONACO 



MONTE CARLO 



CASINO AND GARDENS 
vii 



PAGE 

viii 

FACING PAGE 
lO 



22 
62 

70 
92 
106 
118 
122 
132 
140 

160 
166 
168 
180 
218 
238 
260 
290 

320 
328 

340 

PAGE 
342 




From a drawing by A. L, Collins. 

MONACO: THE TOWN AND THE ROCK. 



CHAPTER I 

Hercules and the Phoenicians — The Phocseans, warfare, and the 
olive-tree — Some Roman Emperors, and Monaco's Patron-Saint. 



CHAPTER I 

IN the minds of many who visit Monaco, there 
is probably a hazy idea that it is " very old," 
which is the appropriately hazy way of saying that 
its history can be traced to very remote ages. No 
graver mood belongs to the place, as Europe now 
knows it ; people go there for fun, and most of 
them — despite the dark tales that each has heard 
and each loves to recount — come back with a 
pleasant consciousness of having, in one way or 
another, had what they went for. But the fun 
over, and its memory still alive, some of the 
pilgrims will, it is hoped, lay friendly hands upon 
this book. In it they will find their faith in 
Monaco's antiquity confirmed — perhaps only too 
fully, and doubtless, as I conjecture, a little sur- 
prisingly. 

For of all the gods, decidedly Hercules would 
come last into an imagination occupied with our 
Temple of Chance ; and Hercules is the mythical 
discoverer and founder of Monaco — he, who left 
nothing to chance, nor had anything left to it for 
him ! All that he did was done with his own 



4 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

right hand and arm : the Twelve Labours included 
nothing at all germane to the making of a martin- 
gale or a paroli. . . It was on his way to the 
Isle of Gades^ for the destruction of Geryon — the 
Tenth Labour — that he first landed at the Rock 
of Monaco ; and later, after a victory over the 
Ligurians — so the inhabitants of that coast were 
named — consecrated the hill and port in his own 
honour. This is fabled to have taken place in the 
seventeenth or sixteenth century before Christ. 
Hence Monaco's earliest name, Herculis Partus. 

But here, as almost everywhere in history, we 
find conflicting judgments. Many chroniclers accept 
what is called the Phoenician theory. According 
to this view, it was not the Grecian, but the 
Phoenician, Hercules ^ — otherwise Melkarth — who 
was worshipped in the region. Melkarth was the 
Sun-god, born of Baal and great Astarte, Father 
and Mother of all things ; he was shown as a 
huge, muscular man, clad in a lion's skin, and 
armed with a club. It is thus that we behold him 
on a bas-relief unearthed at Cyprus (one of the 
earliest Phoenician colonies), which represents the 
capture of Geryon's cattle. Melkarth was the 
tutelary divinity of Tyre. . . For whom do not 



' Now Cadiz. 

* Creuzer [Symbolik und Mythologie der alien Volker) states that 
the very name " Hercules " comes from the Phoenician horkh'etl, 
explained as circuiior, mercator ; but it also applies, at bottom, to 
the sun pursuing his course in the heavens, and Melkarth was 
figured as the Sun-god. 



The Coming of the ''Red Men*' 5 

memories awaken with that name, of half-compre- 
hended sonorous, lovely words, glowing as it were 
visibly in coloured beauty through the gloom of 
dim churches ? " O thou that art situate at the 
entry of the seas, which art a merchant of the 
people for many isles . . . O Tyrus, thou hast 
said, I am of perfect beauty. . . Thou art the 
anointed cherub that covereth, and J have set thee 
so. . . O covering cherub in the midst of the 
stones of fire." And thence they came, first finders 
of the place we now call Monaco, but think of as 
The Tables ! The master-mariners of ancient times, 
" never matched in antiquity before or since," to 
Monaco came sailing and rowing in their ships 
all fragrant with the cedar-wood of Lebanon, 
steering by their star — the one they had discovered 
for themselves to be the pointer to the north : we 
call it now the Polar Star, but the Greeks called 
it " the Phoenician." Across the Tyrrhenian ^ sea 
their vessels drove, a horse's head for prow, a 
fish's tail for stern — and when we realise fully how 
those vessels looked, and read that the Phoenicians 
had colonies beyond the Pillars of Hercules in 
1 1 84 B.C., we realise simultaneously that whatever 
else the world has gained in since those days, 
it cannot very well have gained in adventurous 
courage. 

Accepting then as I do (and hope my readers 
will accept with me), the Phoenician Theory, we 
* Now Mediterranean. 



6 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

find that the earliest visit of the Red Men^ took 
place in 1500 b.c. They stayed awhile and built 
a temple to their great god, Melkarth, on the 
jutting peak where dwelt wild savage men who 
knew of nothing else on earth but hunting, fishing, 
and shooting ; then they passed on, pressing ever 
westward. Gades (Cadiz) was colonised in 1 130 b.c. 
The settlement there was the outcome of their rich 
trade with Spain : " for King Solomon had at sea 
a navy of Tarshish with the navy of Hiram ; once 
in three years came the navy of Tarshish, bringing 
gold and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks." 
This Tarshish was Tartessus, a city of Spain — and 
surely the Tom Tiddler's Ground of legend, for 
the first Phoenicians who sailed thither with the 
" navy of Hiram " obtained so much silver in 
exchange for worthless things that their ships could 
not carry it, and they left their tackle and even 
their anchor behind, and went home with new 
tackle, new anchor, all in pure silver ! No less a 
personage than Aristotle is our authority for this 
fairy-tale. . . As the commerce of the Phoenicians 
thus increased, harbour-fortresses became necessary ; 

• According to some authorities, the name Phoenician originated 
in a Greek word, meaning " blood-red," probably in allusion to the 
dark skins. Others derive it from phoinix, a Greek word signifying 
both " phoenix" and "palm-tree." These latter affirm that the palm 
is aboriginal in Phcenicia, which would then stand for Palm-Tree 
Land. The former deny this, and in any case maintain that the 
Greeks used a different word to signify the palm-tree. The many 
such trees all along the Riviera are by the *' phoinix-^arty^' believed 
to have been planted by the Phoenicians = Palm-Tree People. 



Tales of Great Silver Bowls 7 

they established such refuges all along the Medi- 
terranean coast, and Monaco was undoubtedly one 
of them. The active settlement there took place 
in the thirteenth or twelfth century before Christ. 

For four ages, then, they held it, partly occupied 
it, so — this cheating, adventurous, keen-witted, 
imitative, hard-headed and hard-hearted, yet dreamy 
and imaginative folk, with their wondrously organised 
ships wherein (as Xenophon tells us) everything was 
so intelligently stowed away that they could find 
whatever they needed in the dark ; with their 
golden jewels, their graceful coloured glass-things, 
vases, jars, and bowls ; their tales of the countless 
silver trinkets that the women of their land delighted 
in ; and their other stories, too, of the great silver 
bowl which Achilles had offered, at the funeral of 
Patroclus, as a prize to the fastest runner ; " a 
wrought bowl it is, all silver, and the lips are 
bound with gold : earth owns not its like for 
elegance of form." ^ And this (they would relate) 
had been made by Sidonians, and Phoenician sailors 
had carried it to Troy " in hollow barques across the 
cloud-shadowed seas." Moreover, Menelaus, King of 
Sparta, and spouse of wondrous Helen, had counted 
just such another bowl among his fairest possessions. 



Such were the tales they would tell ; and as 
they so sat and spoke, did any vision of the future 

* Homer, Odyssey^ iv, 83. 



8 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

cloud the slanting, dreamy eyes ? Did they guess at 
all how, ere long, across the same Tyrrhenian sea that 
they had traversed, would come stealing from Ionia 
the Phocaean vessels, the " merry Grecian coasters," 
the " young light-hearted masters of the waves " ? 

These Phocaeans were mariners wellnigh as enter- 
prising as themselves. They came from Phocaea, a 
city of Ionia, and appeared first in 800 b.c. ; then 
gradually spread farther, gradually settled closer, 
along the Tyrrhenian coast — encroaching, fighting 
great sea-fights with the Carthaginians, driving them 
and all Phoenicians westward, ever westward. . . 

" As some grave Tyrian trader, from the sea, 
Descried at sunrise an emerging prow 
Lifting the cool-hair'd creepers stealthily, 
The fringes of a southward-facing brow 
Among the ^Egean isles ; 
And saw the merry Grecian coaster come. 
Freighted with amber grapes, and Chian wine, 
Green bursting figs and tunnies steeped in brine ; 
And knew the intruders on his ancient home. 

The young light-hearted Masters of the waves ; 

And snatched his rudder and shook out more sail, 

And day and night held on indignantly 

O'er the blue Midland waters with the gale, 

Betwixt the Syrtes and soft Sicily, 

To where the Atlantic raves 

Outside the western straits, and unbent sails 

There, where down cloudy cliffs, through sheets of foam, 

Shy traffickers, the dark Iberians come ; 

And on the beach undid his corded bales." 



With the Phocaean occupation, as I have said, 
came warfare ; " they had long bloody battles with 



Olives 9 

the inhabitants, battles which they always won " — 
and, having won, they prudently imparted to the 
vanquished everything they knew except fighting. 
Commerce and agriculture they taught, and the Li- 
gurians were quick pupils, for it is from the Phocaean 
epoch that Monaco may be said to date its earliest 
veritable existence. An historian ^ writing in 500 B.C. 
mentions Monceci Partus as a place of some impor- 
tance. With this period came first the epithet of 
Moncscus ^ as applied to the " Port of Hercules," 
which had hitherto been the unadorned description. 
The place became profoundly Hellenised ; here we 
have the origin of that confusion with the Grecian 
Hercules which has puzzled (and, in the opinion 
of some, led astray) many historians. 

Among the Phocaean benefactions I must not 
forget to applaud the introduction of the olive- 
tree, which has been the source of so much wealth 
to the country. Here was something the Phoeni- 
cians might have done, and did not do ; but, 
indeed, to the Greeks that prolific emblem — of 
chastity, fruitfulness, prosperity, and peace ! — seems 
peculiarly to belong ; for wherever our olives may 
be fabled to come from, it is always of Greece 
that we must think as we mumble the small shapely 
things — Doves and Arks and Mounts are all for- 

* Hecataeus of Miletus. 

^ Monoscus, meaning "sole inhabitant," was an epithet of the 
Grecian Hercules, because no supplementary god was worshipped 
in his temple, which did happen with other divinities— Juno and 
Minerva, for example, having altars with Jupiter. 



lo The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

gotten for the moment, unaccountably it may be, 
but undeviatingly. 



Warfare was thenceforth for many ages the 
normal state of things in the Maritime Alps — 
as it was everywhere. There are few matters 
more monotonous to tell of or to read of. The 
Punic Wars (that nightmare of our school-days) 
came first ; then there ensued a long tussle with 
Rome, which lasted for eighty years. In 109 b.c. 
the Romans finally took Liguria. But, like Ireland, 
Liguria refused to " take " her conqueror. Even 
Julius Caesar failed to solve the Ligurian question, 
although the rebels fought for him (just as the 
Irish do for England) in his struggle against 
Pompey. After him came his nephew and adopted 
son, the "young Octavius," barely nineteen years 
old, a " scarce-bearded Caesar," as Cleopatra called 
him when she taunted Mark Antony. But young 
Octavius, actually in the end Mark Antony's 
conqueror, was one day to be Augustus^ that name 
which no man had ever borne before, which " had 
been applied only to things most noble, memorable, 
sacred"; and Augustus Caesar, in 14 a.d., was 
Liguria' s final conqueror too — a far more wonder- 
ful exploit, for there was no Cleopatra in that 
hardy land. The Alps from Switzerland and 
Austria^ to our region were wholly subject to him ; 

' Then calleci Helvetia and Istria, 




Photo copyright, Hutchinson & Co. From the bust in the British Museum, 

OCTAVIUS. 
p. 10] 



La Turbia ii 

the Roman Road, then constructed, followed very- 
much the same track as the famous " Corniche," 
from Nice to Mentone, so called because of its 
extreme narrowness. The golden Augustan Age 
still broods over Monaco in that ruined monument 
at La Turbia, erected in celebration of the final 
conquest. It stands in the village called after it, 
Turbia, by corruption in popular speech from 
Trophcea Augusti ; and consists now of an immense 
mass of stone, " which was probably quadrangular, 
surmounted by a tower cleft in two to its very 
axis, and scarcely in equilibrium. Only in the 
lower mass can any trace of the primitive architect's 
work be found . . . and in fact it was changed 
into a fortress during the days of the Guelfs and 
Ghibellines. And so its very immensity, which 
seemed likely to protect it against the assaults of 
time, became the chief cause of its ruin."^ It is 
related that in 1585, one Father Boyer discovered 
within the fortress a colossal head of Augustus, 
frightfully mutilated, but sufficiently preserved by- 
its own weight to permit of his taking measurements 
of the principal features. He calculated that the 
figure must have been twenty-two feet high. 



Nearly a century later, Otho and Vitellius, rivals 
for Rome, fought near Monaco for the dazzling 
prize. Otho won three battles ; but finally, in a 
1 M6tivier, Monaco et ses Princes, 



12 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

great fight "between Monaco and Lumone," was 
defeated. He made a stirring speech to his soldiers, 
went to bed, and slept soundly for hours — then, in 
the early morning, stabbed himself to the heart. 
" Weary of bloodshed," (so he had declared), " he 
felt it better that one man should die than that 
all should be involved in ruin for his obstinacy." . . . 
Otho is one of the many enigmas of decadence. 
His life with Nero had lost nothing by comparison 
with that of the master in vice ; his ambition had 
been hitherto unsparing of any blood — yet his death 
had this gleam of beauty. He spoke, too, with 
generosity of Vitellius — who, so far from deserving 
it or anything like it, " feasted his eyes on the 
bodies of the slain, and told his attendants that 
the smell of a dead enemy was always sweet." 
Gibbon, emperor of epithet, has found the right 
word here as elsewhere, calling him " the beastly 
Vitellius," whose vices " are not easy to express 
with dignity or even decency." Tacitus dubs him 
a hog ; and Lempriere — incurably vivid ! — does give 
us the details of one at least among the inexpressible 
vices. This was his immortal gluttony ; I refer 
the curious reader to Lempriere — merely recounting, 
for my part, that in the space of four months 
Vitellius spent more than seven millions, reckoning 
in modern money^ upon food and drink. 

Another "Emperor," however, had taken up 
Otho's pretensions. Vespasian, a man of obscure 
birth, useful merit, and unfortunate manners — he 



*'I was once your Emperor'* 13 

had once fallen asleep in Nero's face during a 
recitation by the Emperor of the Emperor's own 
poetry — was now proclaimed at Alexandria. Fabius 
Valens, a devoted ally of Vitellius, was despatched 
to Monaco ; but Vespasian's adherent, Valerius 
(what a wilderness of V's it is !), captured him at 
Hy^res/ and this earliest disaster hurried the 
inevitable fate of Vitellius. He, sunk deep in his 
" beastliness," was very willing to give in — " so 
crestfallen, so dull and lethargic," had he become ; 
and when Vespasian's troops entered Rome, he hid 
himself under a servant's bed, but was dragged 
forth by the furious soldiers, then pushed naked 
through the streets, his hands tied behind him, 
while a drawn sword was held under his chin to 
make him lift his head. Thus was he driven and 
dragged to the fatal Gemonian stairs, "a place 
where the carcases of criminals were thrown," and 
struck down by a rain of fierce, eager blows. " Yet 
I was once your Emperor ! " he cried as they 
stoned him. They may well have taken it for 
a taunt. 

History has nothing to tell us of Monaco until, 
with the virtuous Pertinax, we retrieve the name 
as that of his birthplace. If that be true, Monaco 
must have been filled with wonder at his elevation ; 
for he was the son of a manumitted slaVe, and 
had been in early life a charcoal-burner. But 
intelligent, self-made — like a brilliant Polytechnic 

^ Then called "The Stoechades." 



1 4 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

pupil ! — he was able to teach, and did teach, " the 
Greek and Roman languages in Etruria " ; so that 
when as Emperor in 193 a. d. he built at Monaco 
the towers of Ch^teauneuf and Les Spelugues,^ 
(for protection to the Port of Hercules), the natives 
must have felt much of the inevitable scepticism 
of those who have known a successful man "all 
his life." After Pertinax came Septimus Severus, 
who also built fortifications, his chosen site being 
the Plains of Moneghetti. These things " rest on 
tradition alone," says one writer ; " are pure con- 
jecture," says another — and we can only ask ourselves 
how both tradition and conjecture came to existence. 



Christianity was first preached in the Maritime 
Alps after the death of Vitellius by Barnabas, fellow- 
labourer with Paul ; and Monaco, like other places, 
was one day to have its martyred saint — a woman, 
the first woman in our story : the young Corsican 
maiden named Devote, "a Christian from her 
birth." 

The Monegascans, like the Corsicans — her com- 
patriots — take this legend very seriously indeed. 
" You had better not laugh at it before either," 
says Hector France ^ warningly, and forthwith pro- 
ceeds to do so with all the Gallic grace in the 
world. It tells of the usual stern pagan pro-consul, 

* Les Sp6lugues is the plateau where now stands the Casino. 

* In his deUghtful Pays de Cocagne (1902). 



The Gallic touch in Martyrology 15 

sent by Diocletian from Rome to Corsica to make 
short work of the Christians there. Amongst these 
was a maiden called by the " fatal name of Devote." 
The legionaries took her prisoner, but she managed 
to escape to the house of the Senator Eutychus, 
who was learned and wise, although unchangingly a 
pagan. Devote was only sixteen ; she was pretty, 
and she had " a pair of eyes such as one sees 
nowhere but in Corsica." Eutychus — the sequence 
is our Frenchman's — received the lovely refugee 
" with open arms " ; and not only so, but, as the 
legend tells us, was quickly converted to her faith. 
And then it was his turn. The pro-consul sum- 
moned him first to deliver *' the persuasive fair one " 
to the arms of the law. Eutychus refused, and 
Diocletian's man sent his own cook to poison the 
recalcitrant. This was done by introducing some 
poisonous herbs into an eel-pie : Eutychus " passed 
swiftly from life to death," and poor Devote was 
left defenceless. Then began the scene familiar 
to all readers of martyrology : the command to 
sacrifice to the gods of Olympus, the refusal, the 
accusation of blasphemy, the order to take away and 
torture. . . Very hideous were the tortures. Her 
teeth were first broken by stones ; then, bound 
hand and foot, she was drawn over the jagged rocks ; 
but all torn and bleeding as she was, she gasped 
out to the '' avid crowd " her accusation against 
the Roman of having murdered Eutychus. This 
infuriated him, and he condemned her to be fastened 



1 6 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

to the tail of a horse, which was then driven 
frantically over the boulder-strewn mountain-road. 
" And the people were utterly overwhelmed, for 
they saw the soul of the maiden escaping in the 
form of a dove, and soaring straight up to Heaven" ; 
moreover, that night, two Christian priests, hiding in 
a cavern from the persecution, were visited by an 
angel who commanded them to carry the young 
girl's body away from the island, lest the pro-consul 
burn it. The two priests, guided by a sailor 
named Gratien, found the body, embalmed it, took 
it on board a small ship, and set sail for Africa. 
But contrary winds drove them northward, a storm 
arose, and the little vessel was almost lost. Gratien, 
single-handed, (apparently the holy men did not turn 
to in the emergency), gave up hope and went to 
sleep — but all of a sudden the maiden's soul appeared 
to him. *' Wake, arise, sailor ! " said the soul. 
" The wind has died away, the sea is calm, your boat 
is no longer tossed upon the billows. Wake, and 
watch with your companions, and when the dove 
issues from my lips, follow it, and wherever it stops," 
there bury my body." Land was already visible 
before a white dove issued from the lips of the dead 
Devote. It rose into the air and flew towards " a 
place called in Greek Monosoikos, in Latin Singularey 
in Proven9al Moneque^ and in French Monaco." 
After having circled for some time, it stopped in the 
narrow valley of Gaumates ; and there Gratien and 
the two priests buried the martyred maiden. "The 



The Gallic touch Rebuked 17 

proof of this," adds Hector France slily, " is that 
a chapel was built there, which you can see when- 
ever you choose." This miracle happened on the 
sixteenth day of the February Kalends — which is our 
January 27th. 

"And that is how Sainte Devote came to be the 
patron-saint of Monaco." 

She is no mere legend for the two countries. In 
Corsica, when Paoli raised the standard for revolt 
in 1747, he created a new order of knighthood : 
Chevalier de Sainte Devote. " 'Tis a title," sums 
up the flippant and engaging Hector, "that one 
would like to see restored, now when all the world 
is decoration-hunting." And in Corsica as well as 
in Monaco, a chapel has been built to the memory 
of Devote, Virgin and Martyr — who, I may add, 
with a mild hint of rebuke for the irresistible Hector 
France, is included in Vence's Martyrologie, and 
exhaustively chronicled by the Monks of Lerins. 



CHAPTER II 

The Barbarian Invasion— A Barbarian King — Narses the Eunuch 
and the Empress Sophia — The Lombards and Charlemagne — 
The Saracens and some ItaHan Kings — The first Grimaldis. 



CHAPTER II 

AS if the relics of Devote had really brought 
peace to the country, a period of prosperity 
now ensued for the Maritime Alps and Liguria. 
A halcyon-time — the kingfisher sat brooding on 
the sea. But the halcyon, the kingfisher, has 
her brooding-time immediately before the winter 
solstice ; and the metaphor was to complete itself, 
Monaco was soon to begin the winter of her 
discontent — her anguish, rather. For suddenly 
there came the Barbarian Invasion, the pouring-in 
of the new wine, the bursting of the old bottle ; 
" and the barriers which had so long separated the 
savage and the civilised nations of the earth were 
from that fatal moment levelled with the ground." 
Gibbon does not include, in his list of the Barbarian 
races ^ which then overran this region, the people 
whose name we all have known and steadily mis- 
used from childhood, and will know and misuse 
as steadily, no doubt, for as long as we use 
any names. It is past curing now, that use of 

* He speaks only, at this period, of "the Suevi, Vandals, Alani, 
and Burgundians." 



22 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

" Goth " ; by long persistence in error, error has 
been as it were turned to correctitude — our many 
meanings for the word have, in a queer survival 
of the fittest, come to mean something that is 
more actual than the actual meaning ; and how 
oddly this is in keeping with the national destiny 
of the Goths, who have wholly passed away, who 
have given no abiding name to any part of Europe ! 
In 407, these people invaded Gaul. Many towns 
were destroyed, and Monaco, among them, suffered 
fire, pillage, and devastation. The region knew no 
zest thenceforth until the time of Theodoric the 
Great. He was rightly named — the greatest man 
by far in Gothic history ; and a most human, most 
attractive man as well, with his " fair complexion 
that blushed more frequently from modesty than 
from anger," his huge shaggy eyebrows, his set ot 
regular white teeth, and, above all, his delightful 
manners at dice. *' If Theodoric loses, he laughs ; 
he is modest and reticent if he wins." To Sidonius, 
through Gibbon, we owe this engaging vignette of 
the Barbarian who was not a Barbarian. He reigned 
thirty-three years. After his death the Gothic 
position in Italy weakened ; from 526 onwards it 
fell gradually to pieces. The kingdom he had 
founded was torn in two ; and Justinian, Emperor 
of the East, took advantage of the troubles, and 
sent his great soldier Belisarius to win back Italy 
for the Byzantine Empire — " all that was now left 
of Rome." 




Photo by Wurthle & Sohn. From the Figure in the Hofkirche at Innsbruck. 
THEODORIC THE GREAT, 
p. 22] 



Sophia's Message '^3 

Belisarius did much, but his enigmatic rival, 
Narses the Eunuch, did more, for Narses definitely 
won back Liguria. In his army were enrolled, 
among other Barbarian troops, many " Lombards " 
— a rising people with a big destiny before them, 
as Narses, that most astute, ambitious, and un- 
scrupulous ruler, quickly perceived, and remem- 
bered to much purpose when the time came to make 
use of them. . . He ruled at Ravenna as Prefect. 
He was tyrannical, avaricious — he grew unpopular ; 
the Romans in Ravenna resolved to act. When a 
new Emperor succeeded Justinian, a deputation 
arrived to beg that Narses might be recalled ; and 
the Empress Sophia, who detested him, seized the 
occasion to send him a present and an insulting 
message. The present was a golden distaiF; the 
message bade him, " as he was not a man^'' to go 
and spin wool in the women's apartments. " / 
will spin her such a hank that she will not find the 
end of it in her lifetime T Thus did Narses answer 
— and forthwith sent messengers to the Lombards 
of Pannonia,^ summoning them to invade the 
goodly land of Italy. Thus came about the In- 
vasion of Alboin (568), which wrested the greater 
part of Italy again from the Empire, and changed 
the destiny of the peninsula. 

Our hapless Liguria had but substituted one tribe 
of savages for another. Well indeed did the Iron 

* Pannonia was the region between the Danube and the valleys 
of the Drave and Save. 



24 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

Crown of Lombardy symbolise the Lombard rule. 
One of their princesses had ordered a suitor to be 
killed in her presence, because he was not so tall as 
she had been led to expect ; and the Longbeards, 
as the Italians called them, delighted to propagate 
" the tremendous belief that their heads were formed 
like the heads of dogs, and that they drank the 
blood of their vanquished enemies." These fero- 
cious folk came from North Germany. Their 
original place was Magdeburg, on the left bank of 
the Elbe — in a district called Lange Borde, which 
signifies " a fertile plain beside a river." (It is only 
by a natural confusion of sound and meaning that 
their name of Langobardi came to stand in Italy for 
Longbeards.) Their dominion lasted for more than 
two hundred years (568-774). They never won the 
Italian hearts : nefantissimi (execrable, loathsome, 
filthy) they were to those hearts in the beginning, 
and nefantissimi they remained to the end. At last 
the great Pope Gregory I. made common cause with 
the people against them ; the Franks worried them 
on the west, the Slavs, the Huns, harassed them on 
the east ; their warfare with the Byzantine Empire 
was chronic — not much longer, it was easy to fore- 
see, were the Lombards to have their day. 

Among the Franks of the West, a family was 
emerging into power, a family represented by one 
Charles Martel — " Charles the Hammer," for he was 
like a hammer to his enemies — who governed the 
Franks "with the humble title of Mayor of the 



No Peace for Monaco 25 

Palace of Austrasia." But to Charles Martel the 
Pope appealed in vain ; he would not help against 
the Lombards. His son Pippin was kinder ; in 
return for the Prankish crown, Pippin came to the 
Pope's aid,^ and conquered the nefantissimi in 756. 
And then, in 774, came Charlemagne — came the 
Siege of Pavia, the destruction of the Lombard rule, 
Charlemagne's proclamation as King of Lombards 
and Franks ; finally, in 800, his coronation as 
Emperor of the Romans — and a time of peace at 
last for torn, desolated Liguria and our Rock in 
the Sea. 



And yet again — it did not endure ! Before the 
days of Charlemagne, indeed, this newest harass- 
ment had menaced. So long ago as 729, the towns 
of the Ligurian littoral had clustered together, under 
the protection of the great city of Genoa, against the 
common enemy — the Saracen, ** a name which every 
Christian mouth has been taught to pronounce with 
terror and abhorrence." Strange — the " two persecut- 
ing creeds," then mutually persecuting ; for according 
to the creed of Islam, the Christians had become 
polytheistic : Paganism had returned. Mahomet 
came, as he believed, to testify to the Unity of God. 
There is one God, and Mahomet is his Prophet — in 
Gibbon's phrase, " an eternal truth, and a necessary 
fiction." The sword (proclaimed the Prophet) is the 

1 The Pope was at first Gregory III ; and later, Stephen III 



26 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

key of Heaven and Hell \ and since Fate and Pre- 
destination were sternly taught in the Koran, there 
could be no danger — " for danger is not, where 
chance is not." Such were the foes who now rushed 
upon Europe ; such was the war — a " Holy War," 
the cruellest of wars that are. 

Europe, and with Europe, our little province of 
Liguria, our little Rock in the Sea — 

"... heard the tecbir ; so the Arabs call 
Their shout of onset, when with loud appeal 
They challenge Heaven, as if demanding conquest " ; 

and not only heard, but saw — saw the terrible Greek 
Fire ! By the time the Saracens invaded Europe, 
the secret of this fire — a secret that had been kept 
for four hundred years — was theirs, filched by 
treachery from the Romans of the Eastern Empire. 
It had scattered the infidels at the Siege of Con- 
stantinople ; now it was their own. The fiendish 
missile was either " poured from the ramparts, or 
launched in red-hot balls of stone and iron, or 
darted in arrows and javelins, twisted round with 
flax or tow ... or, most commonly, blown through 
long tubes of copper, fancifully shaped into the 
mouths of savage monsters." Straight up into the air 
it would soar, but it could dart with equal violence 
down or across ; water but made it fiercer — sand or 
vinegar alone could quench it ; " 'twas like a winged, 
long-tailed dragon, about the thickness of a hogs- 
head, with the report of thunder and the velocity of 



A Man of Genius, and a Euphemism 27 

lightning." . . . Great Charles Martel had routed 
them, for all that, in 732, and greater Charlemagne 
had kept them where the Hammer had sent them ; 
but he died in 814, and then the trouble began 
again. They swept down upon Provence and Liguria, 
sowing such terror " that it seemed as though the 
Prophet's word were coming true for the second 
time : * 'Ten thousand shall flee before two, and one 
shall persecute a thousand' "... They could not 
have thus prevailed, had the land been undivided. 

Charlemagne's empire was partitioned in 843. 
To Lothair, his eldest grandson, was assigned that 
portion of France called the Empire, or Imperial 
States. In this territory lay Provence, which in- 
cluded Liguria and Monaco. Later, when the 
provinces of Provence, Viennois, and Savoy were 
united, a new domain was formed, and called the 
Kingdom of Provence. One Bozon, already Gover- 
nor of Lombardy, was entrusted with its adminis- 
tration by the usurping monarch, Charles the Bald.^ 
Bozon was, according to his chroniclers, a man of 
vast genius ; he now manifested his powers. He 
" resolved " to marry Louis II's only daughter, 
Ermengarde. Resolution makes a charming eu- 
phemism for poisoning a prior spouse ; for though 
Bozon was already royally connected — his sister 
Richilda was married to Charles the Bald — his " vast 
genius " held one tie to be insufficient. The first 
wife was accordingly removed ; and Bozon, thus 

' He had seized it from Louis II, who succeeded Lothair. 



28 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

protected, snatched untiringly every ell he could 
snatch from Charles, who was already far too lavish 
with his inches. Bozon indeed had encroached so 
far that in 877, when Charles died, he had to wait 
only two years before being proclaimed King of 
Aries, in which new domain the former Kingdom of 
Provence was included. . . Success did not mellow 
him. He had begun — so Honore Bouche asserts — 
by " wishing to do well to everyone." The 
poisoned preliminary lady might have had some- 
thing to oppose to this declaration, if one could 
have seen her on her deathbed ; but I must 
suppose that Bouche, in making it, was alluding to 
affairs of state alone. At any rate the good intent 
of either sort was short-lived. Bozon reigned only 
until 888, then died, "having ended," says the same 
historian, " by doing ill to everyone, from choice 
and inclination." 

He left to a son, Louis, the more and more 
distracting task of government. Not only in the 
Kingdom of Aries, but in all France and Italy the 
time was out of joint. Heaven forbid that I should 
inflict on trustful readers the tale of the pretenders 
— of the Berengers, Vidones, Odos, Lamberts, each 
with a complaisant Pope arriving soon or late to 
espouse his cause ; some, again, dragging a King 
of Germany in tow. How many eyes were put 
out, and whose the eyes were, is a problem which 
at moments it has seemed impossible to solve — but 
luckily it signifies little : the gist of the maddening 



The Fraxinct 29 

matter is that, in the dire confusion, trade and 
commerce were dislocated, and while rival Dukes 
and Counts and Kings were blinding and poisoning 
one another, the Saracens were once again estab- 
lishing themselves in the land. In Provence they 
were not only established, but had fortified them- 
selves in the best positions. The great fortress of 
the region — the fortress with the unforgettable name 
of Fraxinet ^ — was theirs. Much conflict of opinion 
prevails as to its site. That it was in Italy — as 
Italy was constituted then — seems certain, though 
the site most commonly accepted would now, as all 
the world knows,^ assign it to France. This theory 
places Fraxinet in Provence — now officially the 
Maritime Alps — west of Nice, at the mouth of 
the Gulf of Grimault (otherwise St. Tropez), in a 
village called La Garde-Freinet, "wherein there 
grew many ash-trees " ; hence the name, from the 
French /r^»^ = ash-tree. " By the mysterious judg- 
ment of God," says Gioffiredo,^ " twenty (not more) 
Saracens, coming from Spain in a small ship, were 
driven thither by the wind, landed secretly at night, 
and entered noiselessly the village. After having 
slain the inhabitants, they fortified themselves on 
the top of the mountain, thenceforth called Mons 
Maurus ; and made the Spineto still more inac- 

* Durante, in his Histoire de Nice, says that the word Fraxinet 
comes from the Arabic, and signifies fortress ; and that the Moors 
built many " Fraxinets." 

^ Savoy having been in 1861 annexed to France. 

' Storia dei Alj>i Marittimi. 



30 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

cessible, leaving only the barest ingress." This 
Spineto was one of the boundaries of the fortress — 
an impenetrable thicket of toughest thorns. On 
the other side was the sea, overhung by a dizzy 
rock. 

From this wonderful position Louis Bozon made 
feeble efforts to dislodge the Arabs. He never 
achieved any success against them. Hugo, his 
Governor of Provence, had better fortune ; he 
actually did shut them up in Fraxinet in 900 ; but 
after this achievement, fortune smiled upon him 
too kindly, and his life became entangled in more 
glittering toils than those of military glory. Hugo, 
in a word, was suddenly claimed by the all too 
irresistible Lombards as their King ; one Rudolph, 
King of Transjuran Burgundy, being incidentally 
repudiated. Hugo was crowned at Pavia in 930 — 
and no sooner crowned than cast off; for the 
Lombards, as suddenly and as violently reacting to 
loyalty, " recalled Rudolph ! " He returned, and 
settled down amicably, leaving to Hugo the title 
of King of Italy. . . But Rudolph was not by any 
means Hugo's sharpest thorn. There had been 
Berenger too, that very persistent rival for the 
Italian throne — Berenger, originally a mere Duke 
of Friuli, who had never ceased intriguing against 
everyone around him ; who had summoned a King 
of Germany to his aid, had prevailed, lost, and 
then prevailed again ; who had been crowned 
Emperor by the Pope, and instantly deposed in 



The Haunting of Hugo ^i 

favour of that docile Rudolph of Transjuran 
Burgundy. Then the revolts, blindings, and assas- 
sinations had begun all over again, until Berenger 
was finally killed by his Italians. Hugo must have 
been driven almost to his wits' end by that time 
— but worse was still to come, for in 944, when he 
had again won a real advantage over the Saracens, 
had burned their ships and closely invested Fraxinet 
. . . what fresh distraction fell upon the haunted 
monarch ? 

'Twas like a nightmare dream : there was another 
Berenger. He was a Marquis of Tuscany this time, 
instead of a Duke of Friuli ; but that was the only 
difference. In essence he was the same : he too 
intended to be King of Italy. Perhaps Hugo was 
a litde crazy by this time. He had invested the 
Great Fraxinet ; in that almost perfect fortress he 
could now, if he chose, establish himself and his 
ally's forces.^ The Saracens had escaped to Monte 
Mauro, close by. The game was his, he had 
every trump in his hand — even the famous fire, 
for the Greeks had brought their old secret with 
them. But the very name of Berenger seemed to 
paralyse the King : it is really as though there had 
been some quality of the occult in it, as though, 
instinctively, Hugo had recognised the obsession 
of a destiny. For what did he do } He raised 
the siege of Fraxinet, he dismissed his Grecian 
allies, he almost fled to Italy — and, before he did 

' This ally was Constantine VIII, Emperor of the Greeks. 



32 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

so, he made a treaty with the Saracens ! They were 
to guard their region of the Alps against Berenger. 

Of such a treaty, anyone but a fate-haunted 
king must have foreseen the end. Within three 
years the Italians had revolted against him in favour 
of Berenger ; the Saracens, accustomed to these 
sudden opportunities and skilled in making use of 
them, had broken their treaty as if it were a dry 
stick ... all was lost, in a word, and Hugo fled 
from Italy back to his old Kingdom of Aries, where 
he died not long afterwards. 

Italy was wretched under Berenger. He was 
cruel himself, and he restrained no cruelty from 
others. The Saracens ravaged the land ; they were 
again masters of every fortified place in Provence, 
and they "wreaked their native ferocity," says 
Bouche, " in town and country. The Law of the 
Stronger was their only law." Their insolence and 
their power had grown to such heights that in 963 
the great Emperor Otho formed the design of a 
regular campaign against them. He publicly an- 
nounced, in 968, his purpose of devoting himself 
to their expulsion ; but other matters intervened, 
the expedition was repeatedly postponed, and Otho 
died, a few years later, without having added that 
glory to his already so illustrious name. 

It was for William, Count ^ of Provence, that 
those laurels were reserved. In 972, he won his 

■ Louis M6ry gives hira the titles of Count of Aries, and Marquis 
or Prince of Provence. 



Grimaldi, and the Ghost of the Archives 33 

great victory over the Saracens. He had sworn 
to purge the country of the miscreants : he made 
furious war upon them, pursued them both by 
land and sea, and took from them the Great 
Fraxinet, " which was razed to the ground " — but 
they fled again to those almost impregnable heights 
of Monte Mauro, and thence defied the Christians. 
The Christians, in this sally, were led by a noble 
whose family-name will dominate the rest of my 
chronicle : one Giballin Grimaldi, of the great 
Genoese patrician House, whose posterity was to 
hold from that time onward till this very day itself, 
the little, ancient, storied Partus Herculis Moncecus 
— Monaco : our Rock in the Sea. 



"Whose posterity was to hold from that time 
onward " — I wrote just now of Giballin Grimaldi. 
But of course the thing is not so simple as all that ; 
of course I may not thus straitly, thus light-heartedly 
afiirm. With the name of Grimaldi rises the 
dust from law-papers innumerable, rises too the 
spectre which haunts all archives : Conjecture. Is 
the document authentic ? For a document is like 
Caesar's wife in the true sense, and in the Lady 
Mayoress' sense : certainly it must be above sus- 
picion, still more certainly it is " all things to all 
men." Where one chronicler sees reassurance, 
another sees only — assurance ! 

" We have the Deed of Gift," cries one. 

3 



34 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

'* What Deed of Gift ? " sneers another. 

*' The Deed of 980 — here, in the archives of 
the Bishopric of Frejus, quoted by Bouche, by 
GioiFredo." 

" And by Nostradamus ? " 

" Nostradamus. . . . ! " 

"Well, perhaps he's not too trustworthy — but 
listen to Papon." 

"I know all Papon's points, but remember, he 
didn't convince Reinaud of the Institute." 

To such a dispute it is plain that there can be 
no end. . . But for us there has as yet been, 
perhaps, no very definite beginning. I must go 
back to Giballin Grimaldi, the Genoese noble who 
fought with William of Provence against the 
Saracens, and drove them finally from the Great 
Fraxinet in 972. From Fraxinet, as we have seen, 
they fled to the dizzy heights of Mount Maurus. 
The hill was easy enough of access towards the 
north, and hither they gathered all their strength. 
Towards the south things could take care of 
themselves, for the south meant merely a headlong 
descent to the sea. No human being could climb it. 

Grimaldi climbed it. He climbed it in " the 
dead vast and middle of the night," followed by 
a handful of as brave adventurers ; he found it, 
as he had known he would find it, wholly un- 
defended, he penetrated to the very heart of the 
fortress, " and gave the Arabs so much to do there 
that the larger portion of his army, making a fresh 



August Gentlemen Disagree 2S 

assault to the north, could force the now more or 
less deserted entrenchments — for the Saracens were 
fighting two foes at once. The deed was done : 
the infidels were massacred to a man." Thus 
Metivier, collating old records, reports the feat 
which, in his opinion and that of many others, 
won for the great Genoese family the Principality 
of Monaco ; for William of Provence, elated by 
his lieutenant's success, presented him (they affirm) 
with the territory which he had thus conquered : 
that is, the entrances to the Gulf of Sambracia, 
commonly called St. Tropez, near Fraxinet — in 
other words, all the coast from St. Tropez to Frejus. 
The gulf, later on, came to be called Grimaud, in 
honour of the Grimaldis. 

We are now come to the disputed Deed of Gift. 
It is accepted by many — by most, indeed. Bouche, 
Metivier, Boyer de Sainte-Suzanne, Reinaud, 
Moreri, Anderson in his Royal Genealogies, P^re 
Anselme, the Marquis Adorno, and others of less 
weight (following them) beUeve in the document. 
Papon, Gioffredo, and Abel Rendu do not. Papon, 
while admitting that all the other historians of 
Provence accept it, finds himself unable to do so. 

Who shall decide when archivists disagree ? and 
disagree so often ; for not only over the Deed of 
Gift do these august gentlemen quarrel. The 
origin of the House of Grimaldi is another serious 
trouble, and herein not archivial documents merely, 
but genealogical trees — those very delicate and 



36 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

personal affairs — confront us. The most renowned 
and denounced of these is that of Venasque — more 
ceremoniously, Charles de Venasque Ferriol, secre- 
tary to Prince Honore II. This gentleman drew 
up in 1647, for the use of his master, the genea- 
logical tree of the House of Grimaldi, making it 
descend from Grimoald, son of Pepin d'Heristal, 
elder brother of Charles Martel (who was Charle- 
magne's grandfather), and Mayor of the Palace of 
Austrasia under Childebert, King of the Franks, 
in 712. . . To the inexpert, it all seems plausible 
enough ; yet even those modern writers who, like 
Metivier, treat the theory with good-nature, leave 
many loopholes for scepticism. Metivier does not 
actually accept what Abel Rendu — that whole-hearted 
iconoclast ! — calls Venasque's " fable " ; but it is 
mentioned " with marked indulgence " ^ in the 
beautifully-printed volumes of that most dignified 
work, Monaco et ses Princes, dedicated " A son altesse 
serenissimcy Charles III, Prince Souv'erain de Monaco " 
— a fact upon which Rendu slily insists all through 
his amusing duel with the earlier scribe. Rendu 
plays the ever-vivacious part of free-lance. His 
book is not dedicated to any Serene Highness ! 
Over Metivier, then, he can and does make merry. 
Of the unhappy Tree he remarks, " It is drawn up 
with an artful precision which should drive every 

' Here is the marked indulgence : "No sovereign family in 
Europe can show a Tree so detailed, or one drawn up with such 
meticulous care. Yet there are no positive documents ! Bouche 
used it with reserve — and so shall I." 



The Disagreement Continues 37 

other genealogist, past, present, and to come, to 
despair " ; and adds that he himself sojourned long 
in Provence, collecting traditions, turning over, 
studying, comparing, the documents in many archives 
— yet found nothing which even apparently justified 
such pretensions. 

"Fables — fables which add nothing to the lustre 
of that noble and ancient Genoese House ! " That 
is his recurrent cry ; for besides the delusive Deed 
of Gift, besides the fabulous Tree, there is yet 
another fairy-tale for him to demolish. It may be 
called The Donation of Otho. In 920, " a Grimaldus" 
is said to have wrested Monaco from the Saracens, 
and to have been given by Otho I (called The 
Great) the town of Antibes and the fortress of 
" Mourgues " — a Proven9al name for Monaco. 

Rendu rejects this wholly. " As fabulous an 
origin has been devised for the sovereignty of the 
Grimaldis as for their genealogy." We shall find, 
further on, that 1338 is the earliest date accepted 
by Gioffredo for this sovereignty ; and Rendu 
follows him — with a characteristic tendency to 
prefer 1346. Pemberton too, in his odd, bald 
narrative, says that 1338 was "actually the first 
time that a Grimaldi could be said to be entire 
lord and master of Monaco." ... It seems as if 
the Deed of Gift must go. But M^tivier, that 
impassioned " official," recalls an anecdote of Bona- 
parte as a neat riposte for any Prince of Monaco 
confronted with a Rendu, 



38 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

Napoleon (he relates) once asked Duke Massima 
of Rome, with his usual bluntness : " Is it true 
that your family descends from Fabius Maximus ? " 

" At least," answered the Duke, " it is a tradition 
which has lain uncontested for more than a thousand 
years." 

I shall leave my readers, under the spell of this 
proud humility, to believe or not as they please 
that the Grimaldis descend from Pepin d'Heristal, 
were Sovereigns in Provence so early as 920, and 
were Lords of Monaco by Deed of Gift in 980. 
I myself incline, judging by the history of both 
place and family for the next century or so, to the 
theory of Papon, Gioffredo, and Rendu ; for the 
Grimaldis were a bellicose, an arrogant, an ambi- 
tious race (even in Genoese chronicles remark- 
able for all these attributes), yet they suffered, 
if they were indeed the Lords of Monaco, dis- 
possession, usurpation, for century after century, 
without a blow, a threat, or even, apparently, a sigh. 
And so it seems that Venasque makes neither history 
nor flattery. 



Giballin Grimaldi, then, was simply a gallant 
Genoese patrician, mindful of the ancient pact 
between the littoral towns and the great city of 
Genoa in 729, and therefore an ardent Saracen- 
hunter, swift to place his sword at the service of 
William of Provence. *' Great of heart and a very 



*'Is there any one coming?** 39 

magnificent gentleman " : such are the titles given 
him in the disputed Deed of Gift. They are merely 
personal, as the reader will have noticed ; thus they 
help to prove that Otho had not made Giballin's 
father Lord of Antibes and Mourgues. Rendu and 
his school triumph here. " If there had been actual 
titles to assign, they would have been assigned." 

When Giballin had driven the Saracens from 
Fraxinet, he built a tower, known as Tour de 
Grimaud, between the demolished fortress and the 
sea, took up his abode in it, and, like Sister 
Anne in the story, became the embodiment of a 
phrase : Is there any one coming ? Some one was 
continually coming — a Saracen sail was for ever 
emerging on the horizon, and the Grimaldi galleys 
were for ever pouncing upon " the accursed pirate." 
Soon, too, there came a deputation from Nice : 
would Giballin free Nice also from the infidels } 
Giballin (" like another Garibaldi," cry some 
enthusiastic writers) instantly assented. His ardour 
enkindled every one ; the nobles of the neighbourhood 
armed their numerous vassals — soon he had a big 
army, *' full of noble self-confidence." And soon, 
too, that self-confidence was justified. The Saracens 
were hunted from fort to fort until they reached 
the last of all, the Little Fraxinet on the promontory 
of St. Hospice, beyond Villefranche. Taking 
cover therein, they loaded their vessels with every- 
thing they had of precious and desirable — and then, 
quite quietly, quite resignedly, they sailed away ! 



40 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

So Nice was rid of them, too, and Nice was in 
raptures. Giballin was hailed as the Liberator of 
the country ; laurels, civic as well as military, were 
crowded on to his head — he was the man of the 
hour, and he used his hour right well. Little 
Fraxinet was destroyed, except for one tower which 
might help to defend the coast ; the Saracen 
prisoners were employed in public works, such as 
repairs to the city walls : out of evil, Giballin 
Grimaldi, "great of heart and a very magnificent 
gentleman," was almost miraculously bringing good, 
for who could ever have dreamed that an infidel 
might be useful? 

Arabic words and phrases now crept into the 
Proven9al dialect. Thus the phrase, faire un 
salamalec = '■'■ to salute some one," came from the 
Saracen sales malec, which, according to a Proven9al 
troubadour, means " I salute you." The same poet 
tells us that, in his time, if anyone paid this gentle 
verbal courtesy to a Saracen, that agreeable gentleman 
would answer Nayca salem, which, being interpreted, 
means " God confound you." And if you happened 
to be hot-tempered, you might find yourself mur- 
muring the appropriate rejoinder before you could 
stop, and then not only heaven, but hell and all 
its devils, knew what was likely to ensue. 

What Giballin began, his posterity continued. 
They had a mission against the infidels — quite 
seriously they were convinced of that ; and so 
every crusade saw, on every fleet provided by 



Model Wives 41 

Genoa (and those were many), some brilliant, 
ardent, inspired Grimaldi. In 11 04, in 1168, in 
Frederic Barbarossa's fatal expedition of 1 1 90, at 
the Siege of Damietta in 121 9 — there they were, 
as their escutcheon with the lozengy, argent and 
gules, *' as ancient as any in Europe," which hangs 
in the Crusaders' Gallery at Versailles, to this day 
mutely demonstrates. 



Thus we perceive that truly, as Rendu says, the 
House of Grimaldi has no need to " quit the solid 
earth and raise itself to Olympus " ; for not only 
is its lofty Italian origin well attested, but the 
brilliant achievements of its men shine forth in 
almost every warlike operation of the Middle Ages. 
Of its women we hear nothing, and though this 
is no doubt as it should be, it bereaves the 
chronicler. The alliances were for the most part 
distinguished ; Grimaldis got the pick of the 
European basket, which seems to make it the more 
certain that their wives were really well-behaved, 
since somewhere in the story of the many illustrious 
families thus connected with our heroes, we should 
surely find, if there were aught to find, the tale 
of feminine sinnings. It is all the stranger too, 
because, as we have gathered, a Grimaldi husband 
was apparently never at home. He was always, 
always fighting somebody — commanding a ship or 
leading an army, climbing a mountain, investing a 



42 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

city, running a blockade . . . and what were the 
ladies doing in the long lonely meantime ? Perhaps 
they were but too expert at intrigue, perhaps they 
never allowed themselves to be found out (one of 
the wives was named Specieuse, an appellation 
which might colourably claim some " living-up 
to") — for temptations must have abounded. It 
was the age of the Troubadours, whose very name 
spells seduction ; and but for those alluring gentle- 
men, life must have been a tedious affair for women 
in such years of endless fighting, monotonous with 
the grim monotony of warfare. What was there 
to listen to (when a Troubadour was not murmuring 
a love-song), except the tale of those rushing torrents 
of blood, the news of this one dead or that one 
wounded — though Hallam indeed declares that the 
casualty-lists were short, for knights wore armour 
so impregnable that no weapon could pierce it. 
A far more common danger (he says) was the 
tumble in the stifling, trodden-up mud, when, 
pinned to the ground by the oppressive coats-of- 
mail, they would die of suffocation or be trampled 
to death. Such a tragic anti-climax lends a sadden- 
ing touch of realism to the romance of those paladins 
who could never have enough of " glory." 



To whomever Monaco belonged during the ninth 
and tenth centuries, its owners did not highly value 
it, for from the expulsion of the Saracens in 980 or 



Genoa Shivers on the Brink 43 

thereabouts, till 1191, the Rock was totally aban- 
doned. The fortress fell into ruins ; hardly a trace 
of it remained when, in 121 5, the Genoese formally 
entered as " real proprietors." The place had long 
been a bone of contention for the Counts of Pro- 
vence and the Holy Roman Emperors, who now 
were also Kings of Germany and Lombardy. The 
Counts regarded it as Provencal territory, the Em- 
perors as Italian — and the latter held themselves to 
be its sovereign lords. Inn 74, the Rock had been 
definitely given to the Genoese by the then ruling 
Count of Provence,^ Raymond Berenger V. They 
were to hold "the high place and mount of Monaco," 
as real proprietors, " to the end that they may build 
a castle there." But that troublesome question of 
the suzerainty stuck in Genoese throats, for the 
Emperors used the fideli suo in their dealings with the 
Counts, and the term was an implication of vassalage : 
how then could Raymond Berenger make a valid 
donation } The prudent citizens lay low till 1 1 9 1 . 
Then Henry VI, (Barbarossa's son, now Emperor, 
and justly called '* The Cruel "), badly needing some 
of Genoa's incomparable ships, took occasion to kill 
two birds by confirming RaymondBerenger's donation. 
This would not only please the powerful city, but 
would remind the Count of Provence that he was 
merely the Imperial vassal. Genoa, however, still 
shivered on the brink and feared to plunge within. 

^ The full title seems to have been " Count lof Toulouse and 
Marquis of Provence." 



44 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

She temporised. She sent two consuls and two 
nobles, together with two Imperial deputies who, in 
Henry's name, invested the consuls with the power 
of holding the " rock, port, and entire territory of 
Monaco " — and then tactfully, if not very pluckily, 
Genoa withdrew, and did not reappear until 1215. 
In that year, she took heart of grace and sent three 
shiploads of " noble citizens " to begin building that 
castle which had been arranged for so long ago. 
And this was the first time since 980 that any one 
had spent a night at Monaco. 

According to the Metivier-school, the Grimaldis 
had been " violently dispossessed " by every one 
of these arrangements. Yet we do not hear of any 
resistance, even the most feeble, on their side. No 
protest, no appeal to law — in that age which seems 
to pullulate with law-papers ! To one or other of 
the rivals for the territory — to the Counts of Provence 
or to the Emperors — they could surely have made 
moan, and the very rivalry would have produced 
support. But no : and the fact that the Grimaldi 
archives were despoiled during the Revolution 
avails nothing for the case, since elsewhere — in 
other archives, that is — there must assuredly have 
been confirmatory proofs of one kind or another. 
Rendu's cry — incessant to the point of demanding 
large print — is 

BLIND ERROR 

as regards this whole position of the official 



Genoa Plunges in: *' Cracklimbo ** 45 

school ; and with Rendu, once again, I confess 
myself to be irresistibly pushed to agreement. 

At any rate, Grimaldis or no Grimaldis, here we 
are in 12 15, and Genoa has got it at last. She 
is here, visibly established — for she has begun to 
build that so long-awaited castle. On June 6th she 
lands ; by June loth she has laid foundations, and 
she does not return home until four towers are 
finished. Monaco can lift up its head again. No 
longer is it abandoned, forgotten, cast aside — it is 
like other places now : people are going to live in it ! 

But indeed, if Monaco could have foreseen the 
future, it might have wept instead of shining in the 
sv^eet June radiance. To belong to Genoa was well 
enough ; to be inhabited was soon to show itself as 
a more doubtful blessing. That desperate period 
was looming nearer, nearer, when the little rock was 
to share, like everything else that called itself Italian, 
in the weary horrors of the Guelf and Ghibelline 
conflicts. . . My very heart faints and my whole 
spirit grieves " at the moist rich smell of the rotting 
leaves " which tell of that Cracklimbo of history, 
that dim and lurid labyrinth wherein swords clash 
interminably and no one knows what has come of 
it, and great cities are cleft in twain and no one 
may say to whom either half belongs. Yet the 
thing must be envisaged. 1 shall spare the reader 
as much of my own sufferings as I can. 

Let me then, like the crab, go backwards ! 



CHAPTER III 

The Holy Roman Empire — Henry IV, Pope Gregory VH, Matilda 
of Tuscany, and Canossa — Guelfs and Ghibellines — Charles of 
Anjou — Some Grimaldi types : a troubadour, a miser, a spend- 
thrift, a bully, and a coward. 



CHAPTER III 

TT all began with Charlemagne. He conquered 
^ Germany after a thirty-yeared struggle, and in 
800 (as we have already seen) was crowned Roman 
Emperor. It was well enough while he was alive, 
and even while his son, Louis le Debonnaire, was 
alive. But Louis died in his turn ; and his sons 
began the endless quarrel by quarrelling over the 
inheritance which, alas ! during his life, their father 
had divided into three parts. This contest issued in 
the Treaty of Verdun (843), by which Louis, the 
second son of Le Debonnaire, received the German 
lands. And so began the Kingdom of Germany : 
" Germany was for the first time ruled by a king 
who reigned nowhere else." 

It was under Otho I, called The Great, that 
troubles grew acute. There had been fighting and 
dethroning and dying in the interval ; there had 
been encroachments of the Dukes of Bavaria and 
Suabia — the Onlie Begetters of the abhorrent names 
of Guelf and Ghibelline, as we shall shortly see ; 
and then, under the admirable Henry I, called 
The Fowler, " one of the best kings that Germany 
49 4 



so The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

ever had," matters had arranged themselves again. 
Otho was Henry's son, and, thanks to the genius 
of that father, came to the throne as the most 
powerful sovereign in Europe. 

In 951, he went to Italy to chastise Berenger, 
King of Lombardy, for cruelty to a lovely girl- 
widow who had refused to be Queen of Lombardy, 
and whom Berenger therefore, after the winning 
manner of suitors in those days, had shut up in a 
desolate castle. She was Adelaide, widow of Lothair, 
the son of that King Hugo of Italy with whom we 
have already spent some time. No sooner did Otho 
behold the ravishing girl than he lost his heart 
. . . but not his head, for he instantly deposed 
Berenger, (at no time, as we have seen, a very 
secure monarch), married Adelaide, and took the 
title of King of Italy ! 

This was a good day's work, but a German sove- 
reign had to be an energetic person. Otho was soon 
recalled to his kingdom by alarms and excursions from 
the turbulent nobles there. He left Italian affairs in 
the hands of one Conrad of Lorraine, who seems to 
have been a fool, for one of the first things he did 
was to restore the Italian kingdom to Berenger, saving 
his face by calling it a fief of the German Empire. 
Otho, as this amazing Conrad must surely have 
supposed to be likely, was very angry indeed. A 
civil war broke out. Otho won after many fluctua- 
tions of fortune, and assumed the Lombard crown. 
Not only so, but in 962 he received from the 



The Neglected Wife 51 

Pope the Imperial title ; and from that time the 
Sovereign who at Aix-la-Chapelle was acknowledged 
as King of Germany, claimed also the right to the 
Iron Crown of Lombardy at Milan, and the Imperial 
one at Rome. Thus grew up The Holy Roman 
Empire. 

Assuredly it seemed that Otho had done well by 
his kingdom. He had restored the Empire of 
Charlemagne : he and his successors were now 
Secular Lords of the World. Germany ought 
to have been pleased and proud, but in the early 
days, at any rate, Germany was neither one nor 
the other. She wanted her king to herself — and 
she could not and did not have him. Her king 
now had duties which took him away from her for 
years at a time ; and Germany, like a wife whose 
husband neglects her, sought comfort in flirtations 
with the great nobles — who were only too eager to 
take his place. They encroached, they grew ever 
surer of their power, until at last the wavering 
allegiance was almost gone — and still, and still, 
Germany was neglected ! Her king, fatally Emperor, 
was up to his neck in troubles : the struggle with 
the Papacy was begun. The Princes of the Church 
were growing as arrogant as the feudal nobles ; it 
seemed as if everybody was of more importance 
than that superb, unhappy person, the "Secular 
Lord of the World." For while the Empire was at 
peace with the Popes, the prelates upheld it ; once 
the two conflicted, those sage individuals knew quite 



52 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

well to which side it were wise to stick. And thus 
Otho, " who did more than others to raise the 
Royal power, also wrought, more than others, its 
decay." 

For a century and more the storm brewed. 
With Henry Ill's reign, it broke. The Papacy, 
by this time, had sunk to the lowest ebb of moral 
squalor ; simony was universal, other evil doings 
were to match. Henry resolved to mend it or 
end it. He entered Rome in 1046 ; he deposed 
Popes, made Popes — cleaned the Augean stables, in 
short ; and men, sanguine as always, believed that 
a new era had dawned. But Henry III had 
" scotched the snake, not killed it." Soon after 
his son Henry's succession, the very thunderbolt of 
the Papacy crashed down into Europe. There had 
been vicissitudes, during which the fourth Henry 
seemed to win. In 1075, ^^ could actually dream 
that he had restored the authority of the crown ; but 
a year later, when the great Papal Legate, Hilde- 
brand, emerged as Pope Gregory VII, such dreamings 
showed for what they were — mere visions of the 
fancy. Gregory rebelled against the Secular Lord. 
A synod of German Bishops deposed Gregory. 
Vainest vapouring! Gregory issued — all "deposed" 
as he was — his Great Bull of Excommunication 
and Dethronement : Henry IV's subjects were 
formally freed from their oath of allegiance. 

When they got their breath back, the German 
princes duly revolted against their flouted king. 



Canossa S3 

Already he had roused their ire ; now came oppor- 
tunity in a form more dazzling than the most 
romantic could have figured in his wildest dreams 
— and they seized it relentlessly. There ensued 
in 1077 that scene at the Castle of Canossa, which 
"has burned itself into the memory of Europe." 

The mighty fortress belonged to Matilda, 
Countess of Tuscany, variously surnamed La Grande 
Ilalienne, La Grande Devote^ The Sovereign of Italy, 
and — sweetest of all in her ears — The Daughter 
of Peter. Her father had been the richest and 
most powerful nobleman in the land, and she in- 
herited all his vast estates — included therein the 
impregnable mountain-fortress of Canossa. Devotion 
to the Holy See was a tradition in her family ; 
she had been, moreover, deeply influenced by Hilde- 
brand, and thus, as years went by, she grew literally 
to be what Gastineau calls " the ascetic and servile 
courtesan of the Church." ^ She seems, (he says), 
" nothing but a shadow half hidden behind the 
Papal Chair . . . not la grande italienne^ but la 
grande devote^ the born ancestress of all women 
prostrate before the Church ! She renounced all 
moral independence, all spontaneity, all individuality ; 
she lived solely for the Popes and the Papacy ; 
the temporal and spiritual domination of the Holy 
See was her whole ambition — son unique amour. . ." 
Hildebrand, who, despite gossip, was never her lover, 
exploited Matilda unrelentingly. " He dazzled and 
* Les Courtisanes de l'£glise. 



54 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

duped the devout woman ; he did not love the human 
one." So says Petruccelli della Gatina. His dream 
was the same as hers — the absolute domination of 
the Papacy. "The dream lasted after them, and 
provoked long and bloody struggles." 

Who would have thought it — that cherchez la 
femme was to re-echo here } But so it is, for 
what happened in 1077 at the Castle of Canossa 
happened because Matilda was the hostess of Hilde- 
brand, otherwise Pope Gregory VII. He was going 
in her company to a Diet at Augsbourg, where 
it had been arranged that the Emperor and he were 
to meet ; but instead, they met on the way at 
Canossa. There, for three days in the depth of 
a winter memorable through history for its rigours, 
the Secular Lord of the World, clad in a penitent's 
scanty linen shirt, shivered barefoot in the outer 
court of the fortress, entreating to be admitted to 
Gregory's presence. 

The tale sets fire to the cheek no less than to 
the memory, does it not ? nor did the atrocious 
humiliation avail the Emperor. True, he was at last 
admitted. Entering, a haggard heap of ignominy, 
he flung himself on the ground before the Papal feet. 

" Pardon, Holy Father ; pardon for me, merciful 
Father ! I beg for it with all my heart." 

After three repetitions of this cry, arrogant little 
Hildebrand, content with the hour's triumph, negli- 
gently let fall the words, " Satis est, est " (Enough, 
enough !), and in due course Henry was freed from 



Henry and Embellishments SS 

excommunication. But the penitence and the 
pardon were both pretences. Henry hated Hilde- 
brand with a bitter hatred ; Hildebrand, less human, 
cared nothing for the man, but was sworn to un- 
dying enmity against the Emperor. T'here is only 
one Name in the world: that of Pope — among his 
printed Maxims we find such a saying. The war 
which issued from it was called the War of In- 
vestitures : " the first campaign in that tremendous 
struggle which is the central fact of mediaeval 
history." 



In Germany the Royal power was falling more 
and more into decay. Conrad III, when his hour 
of kingship began, was confronted by an army of 
litigious princes, all named, with various additions, 
Henry. Henry the Proud, Henry the Lion, Henry 
*' Jasomirgott " — delightful creature ! whose pet 
phrase on every occasion was Ja so mir Gott helfe, 
meaning merely, for all its picturesqueness, *' God 
help me." He is described as " a rough and 
violent prince," but the bearer of such a nickname 
cannot leave the heart untouched. Disappointingly, 
though, there is nothing more to tell about him. 

This flock of Henrys accomplished little . . . 
nay ! we are too hasty. With Henry the Proud 
we come into direct touch with the long-dreaded 
word : Welf. " He was the grandson of Welf " : 
it does not sound alarming. But what did the 



56 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

relaxed Italian throats, when later it assailed Italian 
ears, make of that innocent-seeming word ? They 
made Guelfo of it — scarce one among them knowing 
or caring what the original word might ever have 
stood for, any more than the other, the opposing 
sound : Wethlingen^ by those lazy larynxes similarly 
softened into Ghibellino. 

It is upon us now, but we shall escape as quickly 
as may be. 

Henry the Proud, Duke of Bavaria, that " grand- 
son of Welf," went further than any other bold 
German noble, for he claimed the crown from 
Conrad III of the House of Suabia, which had 
originated in the Castle of Weiblingen, At the 
battle of Weinsberg in 11 40, " Welf" and '' Weib- 
lingen " were the cries ; but Henry the Proud was 
by that time dead, and his brother Welf III was 
fighting merely to get back Henry's confiscated 
Duchy of Bavaria, which had been given (we re- 
trieve him !) to Henry Jasomirgott. Conrad was 
victorious all along, but though he had thus retained 
his Kingdom of Germany, he soon saw that the Italian 
and Imperial rights had begun to slip through his 
fingers while he settled matters at home. Among his 
greatest nobles (and for a wonder, among his loyal 
ones) was a very handsome young Duke of Suabia, 
his nephew — generous, frank, the embodiment of 
chivalry, and possessed of this further merit, that 
he united in himself the two rival houses, for his 
mother was the daughter of a Duke of Bavaria. 



The Red^beard 57 

Conrad knew that his end was near, and more and 
more the desire encroached (for he had a son) to 
make this young Duke Frederic his successor. The 
desire grew to action: Conrad, dying in 1152, 
named the Red-Beard — " Barbarossa " — his heir. 
It was on the definite understanding that Frederic 
should devote himself to establishing finally the 
validity of those lapsing Italian and Imperial rights. 

He began his work in 1 1 54 by attacking the dis- 
dainful city of Milan. The Milanese for long had 
systematically flouted the Emperors ; Frederic now 
retorted by sacking and burning their dependencies. 
In 1 158, he went further; he set siege to Milan 
herself, and in a month reduced her. Then he 
drew up, at Roncaglia, a code of " regulations " 
so humiliating that not Milan alone, but all the 
Lombard cities were infuriated. His power began 
to wane, but the fortunes of war varied until 1162, 
when he again captured and, this time, utterly 
demolished the leading rebel. His cruelties were 
terrible : *' The cries of liberty were choked with 
blood, and a great silence brooded over all Italy." 
It was the silence which precedes significant action. 
The towns of Northern Italy had resolved to avenge 
Milan. Verona, Vicenza, Padua, Trevisa, Venice — 
all drew together in the first forming of the famous 
Lombard League, whereby the Lombard cities com- 
bined in the refusal to join the Emperor's standard. 
The Boycott, in a word ! and that boycott increased 
until all the northern towns, except Pavia and 



58 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

Montferrat, were Leaguers. Barbarossa was beaten 
in the end. In 1176 he risked a decisive battle 
at Legnano, and was utterly routed. 

His son, Henry VI, had no better luck, and 
Frederic II, that " pupil, enemy, and victim of the 
Church," as Gibbon calls him, had infinitely worse. 
Gregory IX was as keenly his foe as Gregory VII 
had been Henry IV's ; for Frederic had been sworn 
to the Red Cross of the Crusaders at twenty-one, 
and his marriage with Yolande, the heiress of 
Jerusalem, had seemed to make his mission surer 
still ; but as he grew older, " his liberal sense and 
knowledge taught him to despise the phantoms of 
superstition and the crowns of Asia " ; he became 
weary of the very word, still more of the very idea, 
Crusade ; moreover, to quote Gibbon for the third 
time, " he was accused of indulging a profane 
thought that if Jehovah had seen the Kingdom of 
Naples, He never would have selected Palestine for 
the inheritance of His chosen people." At last, in 
1226, urged imperiously by Gregory, he did set out 
on the detested errand — but returned in three days, 
alleging *' serious illness " ! Gregory was most 
bitterly angry. Bulls of excommunication were 
launched against Frederic thenceforth, no matter 
what he did — for a year later, he did actually accom- 
plish his vow. He led a crusade, and was brilliantly 
successful. But he was still under the ban ; he had 
"disdained to solicit absolution for what he con- 
sidered as no crime " — so another thunderbolt crashed 



A Temptation Resisted 59 

upon him ; and in this way things went on till 
1 24 1, when the implacable Gregory died. 

Frederic II was one of the most amazing men in 
all history. "We look in vain for his parallel," 
remarks one writer ; " his name was Stupor mundi^ 
wonder of the world," says another. He knew 
everything. He was learned in Mussulman arts and 
sciences ; he understood Latin, French, German, 
Greek, Arabic, and Hebrew ; architecture was a 
hobby, he was interested in the beginnings of Italian 
sculpture and painting, and was among the first to 
cherish Italian poetry ; natural history he delighted 
in, he had a large collection of rare animals, he wrote 
a treatise on falconry — the list takes away one's 
breath ! He was witty, too ; sceptical, unterrified 
by Gregory's Bulls, bored by the Crusades, though 
tolerant of all things as wits are apt to be ; super- 
stitious, nevertheless, with a dash of unreason which 
endears him but the more . . . altogether, a 
dazzling, a delightful figure, who tempts me to 
assign him a more prominent place in this record than 
the mere facts justify. It was during his minority 
that the terms Guelf and Ghibelline were first used 
as battle-cries — the Leagued Cities and their allies, 
of whom the chief was the Pope, being Guelf, and 
the Emperor's party Ghibelline. Thus two simple 
family-names, which had been used to rally forces in 
the civil wars of Germany, became the watchwords 
in that conflict " which devoured Germany and 
Italy for three centuries," 



6o The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

As the jealousy between the great Italian cities 
grew fiercer, the names of Guelf and Ghibelline 
became only its symbols. Italian burghers cared 
not what they had originally meant ; they now 
stood for the competing towns, classes, families, in 
the long-developing rivalry. So little did any one 
know, indeed, their first significance that contempor- 
ary chroniclers, to account for them, invented a 
legendary struggle between two brothers, one helped 
by the Pope, the other by the Emperor ; or else a 
fable of two fairies descended from the skies, or 
again — more vigorously and far more aptly ! — two 
demons arisen from hell. 



Genoa, whose history at this time is inextricable 
from that of Monaco, got the backwash of this 
tedious quarrel. The city was infested with Guelfs 
and Ghibellines ; but the influence of her factions 
was null, as regards the supreme issue. She had 
stood aside always from the national hurly-burly. 
" Her position made her destiny." Isolated amid 
her mountains, lying between barren rocks and the 
sea, *' towards which the steep slope of the Apen- 
nines appears to be thrusting her," she had, as it 
were, but one thing to which to devote herself : 
the utilisation of her huge harbour. Her fine 
ships, built for commerce, proved indispensable to 
those glorified madmen, the Crusaders ; she would 
hire out the coveted vessels to them for their Holy 



Genoa, and her ''Four Families'' 6i 

Wars, "then follow herself, to win riches and 
glory." Thus, growing greater, more opulent, 
more independent, every year, Genoa — and with 
Genoa, Liguria — had grown also less attached to 
the Emperors, without growing more attached to the 
Popes. She had been, in short, a bystander, until 
the other, the municipal, aspect of the Guelf and 
Ghibelline warfare proclaimed itself — and then her 
halcyon-days were instantly over, and with hers, 
Monaco's. 

Like every other Italian town at that time, Genoa 
had her great leading families very literally at 
daggers drawn with one another. The Doria and 
Spinola were Ghibelline ; the Grimaldi and Fieschi, 
Guelf. These latter were of the feudal nobility, 
the noblesse de campagne ; the Doria and Spinola 
were of the town aristocracy, the richissimes, as it 
were — called (for the sake of the easy tag it made), 
in history noblesse de compagnie, that is City, or 
Guild, nobility. The squabbles between the factious 
nobles soon invaded Monaco. There were battles 
and there were treaties — these latter quite uncount- 
able, and for the most part equally uninteresting. 
Genoa was Guelf in sympathy : so, therefore, was 
Monaco. Genoa would be at war with Frederic II, 
and the then Raymond Berenger, Count of Pro- 
vence, would be Genoa's ally. Raymond, in his 
ardour, would sign (in 1 240) a treaty " resigning all 
claim to Monaco " — which somehow I had thought 
that Raymond had done long ago ! But Genoa had 



62 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

always had " nerves " about Monaco, as we have 
seen. . . It was in 1240 or 1241, too, that all 
those bishops were taken prisoners — those English 
and French bishops who were to meet at Nice, and 
go to Gregory IX's Easter Council at Rome. The 
Ghibelline ships scattered the Genoese fleet, and all 
the cardinals and bishops — one thinks of them as 
a huddled little crowd, watching the rough-and-ready 
sailormen at their work of fighting — were taken to 
Pisa and " chained with silver chains." No more 
do we hear of them : in their silver chains they 
rattle to us for ever. 

It was after this Guelf defeat that the Fieschi 
and Grimaldi sought refuge from Genoa in the 
towns of the littoral, in Monaco among others — 
and made friends with the rising star, that 
Charles of Anjou, (son of Louis VIII of France 
and brother of " Saint " Louis, later Louis IX), 
who was to marry Beatrice, daughter of a 
Raymond Berenger, and thus become Count of 
Provence. 

This brilliant, ambitious Charles " spoke little 
and did much," says Villani. " He scarcely ever 
laughed ; he was as decent as a monk. His form 
was tall and sinewy, his complexion olive, his nose 
was high : he scarcely ever slept. He never took 
any pleasure in mimes, troubadours, or courtiers." 
This is vivid enough, and he springs into still more 
abounding life before our eyes in Gibbon's vignette 
of the moment when he was forbidden by the 




p. 63] 



CHARLES D ANJOU, 
King of Naples. 



A Vignette 63 

Pope to go to war for the Empire of the East, 
and "listened, biting his ivory sceptre in a trans- 
port of fury." Yet one would have supposed that 
Charles of Anjou had had his fill of fighting. He 
had been in Louis IX's Crusade ; he had had a 
lively tussle with the Proven9al towns on his return 
from the Holy Land ; and then had come the crisis 
of his life, and a fight begun of which he was not 
to see the end. In 1265, the Pope, "in a Guelf 
frenzy," offered him the crown of Naples and the 
Two Sicilies. Few crowns have cost such torrents 
of blood as that one. Charles was at first successful 
in his attack upon Manfred, the Ghibelline king 
whom the Pope desired to ruin ; but the tyranny 
and cruelty of his rule in Sicily brought on, in 1282, 
that awful massacre known in history as the Sicilian 
Vespers. Charles lost Sicily, nor did the Angevins 
ever recover it, though they continued until 1442 to 
be Kings of Naples. 

With Sicilian history we are not directly con- 
cerned ; but the need for help in the long striiggle 
brought Charles into touch with Genoa, while by 
his marriage he was Lord of Provence. Monaco, 
therefore, became closely entangled in the snarl. In 
1272, the Fieschi and Grimaldi declared to Charles 
that if he would help them to re-enter Genoa they 
would acknowledge themselves liis vassals. Charles, 
just then a little embroiled with the city, was ready 
to listen to the exiled nobles. War was declared 
against Genoa in 1273 — and her long, unconquerable 



64 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

scepticism about her rights to the Rock was proved 
to be founded on reason ! 

While Charles was getting his troops and his 
ships together, an impetuous Grimaldi — called en- 
dearingly Franchino — was chafing at the bit. Before 
the Angevin was ready, Franchino had seized several 
parts of the Ponantaise Coast, and so, "after long 
dispossession," the Grimaldis once more set foot in 
their ancient patrimony. . . It has cropped up again, 
has it — that eternal question of the sovereignty ? 
But we are to pay no more attention to it ; it is 
to come and go till 1338, when at last not even 
Rendu will have a gibe to make against the " estab- 
lishment." In the meantime, the Grimaldis are to 
figure for us merely as the leading Guelfs : a part 
which is largely to be reckoned with, I think, in 
considering that troublesome question. For over 
and over again, where a personal chronicler speaks 
of "the Grimaldis," we find the corresponding 
document speaking of " detti Guelft^' " / medesimi 
Guelfi " ; and not only so, but several other Guelfic 
families are often mentioned by name in the same 
charter. 

In this war of 1273, fortunes varied so bewilder- 
ingly that the reader turns dizzy. Ghibellines 
conquer in one place, Guelfs in another : if to the 
former Vintimiglia falls, why ! to the latter Monaco 
faithfully sticks — and when, in another flick of the 
shutter, we find the Guelfs at Vintimiglia, our 
eyes are scarce adjusted to the change before they 



Panache, Piracy, and Perfidy 65 

are " out " again, and the Ghibellines " in." And 
through it all, Grimaldis swagger : Admirals, Gene- 
rals, " Princes " ; Rainiers and Franchinos, otherwise 
denominated " Rainier I," and " Fran9ois I." . . . 
The Genoese vainly besiege the Rock in 1297 ; a 
Grimaldi defends it ; the Doria, the Spinola, the 
Curli, everyone seems against the Guelfs, and the 
Guelfs against every man who comes from Genoa. 
There are piracies on Genoese vessels — a bad habit 
which, having once begun, it took the Grimaldis 
a long time to get out of. At last, when in 1300 
the city declared war against Charles II of Anjou ^ 
for his support of the Monegascan Guelfs, (Genoa 
being then in the hands of the GhibelUnes), Pope 
Adrian V intervened, and arranged a conference 
in place of a conflict. By a treaty resulting from 
this, Charles promised to restore to the Republic 
" those forts occupied by the Guelfs " — but, by way 
of compensation for a course of behaviour which 
certainly demanded it, he stipulated that his abandoned 
allies should be allowed to return to Genoa. 

This treacherous abandonment of Monaco was a 
poison-cup for the Grimaldis. Rainier, head of the 
House at that time, retired to Noli to hide his 
chagrin. Noli was a Grimaldi fief near Savona, and 
Noli was ere long to see Rainier Grimaldi in still 
deeper chagrin than at his earlier arrival, for in 1303, 
what does Charles II do but buy all the Guelf 
" fixtures " at Port Hercules, Eza, and Turbia, make 

1 Son. of Charles I, called The Lame. 

5 



66 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

them into a fief, and confer them upon Niccolo 
Spinola, a Ghibelline ! " Put not your trust in 
princes." The walls of Noli must have been mur- 
murous with bitter whisperings from Rainier of that 
for ever newly-realised saw ; but there was another 
member of the family, one Francesco, (picturesquely 
dubbed " Malizia "), who, not content with whisper- 
ings at Noli, came as near as Nice itself to the 
usurping Spinolas, and, whether he muttered versicles 
or not, did something practical besides. He con- 
cocted a plan, in fact, and on the Christmas Eve of 
1306, carried the plan out, and the Guelfs and 
Grimaldis quite literally — in. 

This Francesco was a vast, burly fellow ; GioiFredo 
gives him as nickname the epithet Massa, (mean- 
ing " immense, robust "), instead of the more ob- 
viously picturesque Malizia. He chose Christmas 
Eve at midnight for his grand exploit, because 
the inhabitants of the garrison would be at 
church, praying and meditating ; and moreover 
because his plan, which was to disguise himself as 
a monk, would be favoured by the holy season, 
when the holy men were everywhere. In one aspect 
of the monk, this fat Francesco must have been 
very plausible ; at any rate he gained easy entrance 
to the Castle. He had filled both town and garri- 
son, long before, with his adherents and spies ; 
these kept him informed of the favourable chances 
— and, at the good moment, Francesco entered 
composedly, eyes cast down, hands folded beneath 



Monks, and their Meaning 67 

the flowing robe, where a dagger could lurk so 
well. But no sooner was he " in," than the saint 
turned to a savage. The sentries were stabbed or 
strangled ; his own people from the town swarmed 
after him, and the Spinola party, returning from the 
solemn Christmas service, found very un-Christmas- 
like conditions awaiting them. They realised 
quickly the hopelessness of resistance, and fled — 
and so once more the Guelfs, once more led by an 
inspired Grimaldi, held " the mountain and high 
place of Monaco." 

In the Grimaldi coat-of-arms, the shield is sup- 
ported by two monks, who brandish a sword in 
one hand, and hold the blazon with the other. 
Metivier thinks that the monks are meant to recall 
the ancient name of Monaco — Partus Herculis 
Moncecus, with its implication of solitude, but Rendu 
(who can be at one with Metivier in nothing ! ) 
regards them as mementoes of Francesco's exploit. 
" The reader must choose for himself," he adds ; 
and so the reader must, remembering that this 
domination of the Grimaldis was short-lived, for 
it lasted only twenty-one years — that is, until 1327. 
Then " treason undid the work of treason," and 
the Ghibellines and Spinolas got Monaco back. 
. . . Poor distraught little place ! It had lived 
through many a weary and desperate wrangle in 
the interval. 

There had been trouble between Genoa and 
Robert of Naples in 1 3 1 7 — and anything that 



68 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

went wrong in Genoa hit our Rock hard. Robert, 
successor of the two Angevin princes, Charles I 
and II, bore a great reputation for prudence and 
virtue, yet it was he who '* provoked nearly all 
the wars which devastated Italy and Germany 
during his reign ; and he did his territory more 
harm than good by them." He openly aspired, 
for one thing, to the throne of Italy, and the 
dissensions in Genoa played his game for him. 
That eternal faction-light between the four great 
families — the Doria and Spinola, the Grimaldi and 
Fieschi — kept breaking out, ebbing and flowing, 
waxing and waning, to culminate in 131 8, when 
the Genoese Guelfs, led by the Fieschi and Grimaldi, 
resigned their liberties to Robert, in return for his 
protection, for a term of ten years.^ 

The Grimaldis served him loyally before, during, 
and after this period. He had the great Rainier 
as Admiral, and Rainier won for him in 13 12 the 
famous victories of Meloria and Salerno against 
the Ghibelline Pisans ; Bartolo was his Governor 
of Calabria ; *' Malizia " fought for him ; a Gaspar 
and a Rinaldo covered themselves with glory 
during the Siege of Genoa ; a Rabella was, as it 
were, his Secret-Service officer. . . 

But "the military achievements of distant times 
afford in general," as Hallam justly remarks, *' na 
instruction, and can hardly occupy too little of our 

> At the end of that time iRobert renewed the treaty for six years 
longer. 



English Irony 69 

time in historical studies " ; moreover, the recount- 
ing of such achievements is heavily weighted with 
monotony, so that readers of history are content, 
for the most part, with a writer's assertion that the 
deeds were done. Let me then quickly make the 
assertion — which is, for the rest, indisputable. From 
the time of the Crusades onwards, the Grimaldis 
were unceasingly in the field ; they gave four Grand 
Admirals to France, they contributed (enormously 
wealthy as they were) their own fifteen or sixteen 
vessels to the fleet of any monarch for whom they 
fought — supporting notably in this way Philip of 
France, during his quarrel with Edward III of 
England. " They gave the English a great deal 
of trouble," Gioifredo comnfents, and his assertion 
is proved in most amusing fashion by a document 
which is still to be seen at the Tower of London. 
This is a petition to the Lords Auditors deputed 
by the Kings of England and France, to redress 
the damages done by " M. Reyner Grimaud, who 
is stated to have taken upon him sovereign juris- 
diction in the seas of England, as Admiral of the 
French King, taking the people and merchants of 
England and carrying them into France to abide 
his judgment and award concerning their goods 
and merchandise." A Pirate-King, in short — and 
we have already seen that piracy was a foible of the 
Grimaldis. But Time, as he loves to do, brought 
in his revenges. In 1395, we find that Edward III 
" issued letters-patent, authorising the purchase from 



70 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

one Ralf Basset of Drayton, for 12,000 francs of 
gold, of his prisoner, Reyner Grimbaud, a Genoese 
taken in the wars, in the last voyage which the 
King's dear son made in his service." Thus were 
the sins of Rainier-father visited upon Rainier- 
son ! 



And now at last, to my joyous relief, I discover, 
half-buried beneath the heavy laurels of his kinsfolk, 
a Grimaldi who was neither a soldier, nor a sailor, 
nor both. And better even than what he was not, 
is what he was — for he was a troubadour ; and 
better still, a romantical-tragical troubadour. His 
biography figures in many Proven9al chronicles. 
Jean de Nostredame, who gives it in detail, begins 
by telling us that Luke Grimaud was "a native 
of Grimaud in Provence, and was (so they said) of 
a fine wit, and a good Provencal poet." But any- 
one who wishes to know more, who wishes, for 
instance, to be informed as to his knowledge and 
teaching, " of what loyalty and modesty he was, 
and in what repute he lived, let him read without 
more ado the beautiful and elegant verses of Le 
Monge des lies d'Or . . . and let him pay no 
attention to what Le Monge de Montmajour — 
the Scourge of Poets — says in his foolish and 
slanderous ballad." . . . This is decidedly a very 
" diflPerent " Grimaldi, for Luke's story is that of 
the devout lover. He adored a demoiselle of the 



r 






p. 70] 



RAINIER GRIMALDI. 



The Exacting Lady and her Troubadour 71 

House of Villeneuve, " beautiful and elegant," and 
she, (plainly an exacting lady), not content with his 
unstinted devotion, gave him to drink a love-potion 
(/^ hreuvage amatoire) *' si quen pen de iours luy- 
mesme se priva de vie de ses propres mainSy eagS de 
trente-cinq ans, que fut en Van 1308, dont elle en 
cuida recevoir la mort des reproches quon luy faisait 
d* avoir f aid cruellement mourir un si savant et fameux 
poete." 

"I have read in an old paper of some kind," 
adds Nostredame, "that this Luke came from 
Genoa." Soprani, in the Scrittore della Liguria, 
observes crushingly that his works "have served 
as nourishment to the voracity of Time " ; but his 
contemporary fame was glittering, and one almost 
fancies that he may have rejoiced to die as he did 
die, so triumphantly did it fit his part. To drink 
a love-potion, run mad, and kill himself at the 
age of thirty-five — could any troubadour ask for 
more ! 



I find, immortalised in the Decameron, another 
amusing variation from the Grimaldi type. This 
is another Luke of Genoa, who, however, figures 
in the tale as Ermino. He flourished several years 
later than his namesake ; but I think it well to 
collect the types under one chapter-heading, ignoring 
chronology for the moment. Boccaccio, then, as 
all the world knows, wrote his Decameron in 1348, 



72 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

the year of the great pestilence, which began in the 
Levant in 1346. Italian traders brought it to Sicily, 
Pisa, Genoa; it crossed the Alps in 1348, and 
lasted about five months in each country. The 
stories, or novelle^ are supposed to be related to 
one another by a party of gay men and women 
who have fled from Florence to escape the in- 
fection ; and our little tale of Luke (or '* Ermino ") 
Grimaldi, was the eighth story told on the first 
day of exile. It deals with the rebuke given by 
one Guglielmo Borsiere to this Ermino, who was 
a notorious miser.^ 

" In Genoa, a good while agone " (so allur- 
ingly it begins !) there lived one Ermino Grimaldi, 
richer than " whatsoever other richest citizen was 
then known in Italy . . . and even so in avarice 
and sordidness he outwent beyond compare every 
other miser and curmudgeon in the world." In 
onorare altrui teneva la horsa stretta : " He kept a 
strait purse in the matter of hospitality " ; and 
in Genoa, where the whim was to dress sumptu- 
ously, this gentleman was never fit to be seen. 
"By reason whereof the surname of Grimaldi 
had fallen away from him, and he was deservedly 
called of all only Messer Ermino Avarizia'' 
Avarizia was getting richer and richer every day, 
when suddenly there arrived in Genoa a minstrel 

* Guglielmo Borsiere is mentioned by Villani as " a facetious and 
eloquent person." Dante speaks of him in Canto XVI of the 
Inferno. This story is said to be entirely true. 



Ermino and the Candid Friend 73 

both well-bred and well-spoken — our friend Gu- 
glielmo Borsiere, plainly a paragon in the eyes of 
the story-teller, who lavishes eulogy upon him, 
comparing him sadly with " the minstrels of the 
present day, who are rather to be styled asses'' 
Guglielmo had heard of Messer Ermino Avarizia, 
and desired to see him ; Ermino, too, had heard 
of him^ *' and having yet, all miser as he was, some 
tincture of gentle breeding," received him very 
cordially, and took him and some other Genoese 
gentlemen to see a beautiful new house which 
was just finished, for he was very proud of its 
glories. 

" Pray, Messer Guglielmo, you who have seen 
and heard so much, can you tell me of something 
that was never yet seen which I may have depictured 
in the saloon of this my house ? " Thus Ermino, 
in expansive mood — that mood so germane to the 
display of one's newest toy. But the terrible 
Guglielmo, resolute to administer the dose of 
plain-speaking which was a minstrel's prerogative, 
replied, *' Preposterous question ! Something that 
was never yet seen ! Why, except sneezings and 
the like . . . But, an it please you, I will tell 
you of somewhat which methinketh you never yet 
beheld." Poor Ermino, all innocent, cried, "I pray 
you tell me what it is " ; whereto Guglielmo 
promptly answered, '* Cause Liberality to be here 
depicted." 

"When Messer Ermino heard this, there took 



74 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

him incontinent such a shame that it availed in 
a manner to change his disposition altogether : 
' I will have it here depicted after such a fashion 
that neither you nor any other shall ever again 
have cause to tell me that I have never seen nor 
known it.' And from that time forth, he was the 
most liberal and most gracious of gentlemen." . . . 
The obvious reflection is that it was a pity some 
one had not tried Messer Guglielmo's elementary 
methods a little sooner. The much-decried Ermino 
was plainly a susceptible, a sensitive, and withal, a 
good-humoured personage. 

The Grimaldis could squander money as well 
as hoard it. In 1329, there was a family scandal 
over one Andarone, who had married a daughter 
of the haughty House of Balbs, the splendour 
of which is celebrated by all the early chroniclers 
of Provence. Andarone, by his prodigality and 
bad management, "became so detestable to his 
wife Astruga" that on July i, 1329, she, though 
in perfect health, insisted on making her will — 
wherein she expressed a desire to be buried 
with her own people, left special legacies to her 
younger son Bernabo and her three daughters 
(they had the fairytale-like names of Beatrisetta, 
Delfina, and Alberguetta), and forbade Andarone 
to interfere in any way with the administration 
of the estate, which was left to her firstborn 
son, Guglielmo Rostagno, with remainder to his 
brother. 



A Hot 'headed Young Man 75 

Astruga, however, survived her snubbed husband 
by several years ; and in 1337 or thereabouts 
bought the Seigneurie of Illonza, which lay near 
her domains of Bueil. The purchase was ill-starred, 
for the Illonzians refused to do her homage, their 
hearts remaining loyal to the original owners, the 
Glandeves. The Seneschal of Provence issued 
letters commanding their submission, but in vain. 
In 1344 he came in person, and matters seemed 
likely to settle down, when Astruga's second son, 
Bernabo, " who was of intractable, not to say violent 
and sanguinary disposition," took it into his head 
to choose that moment for avenging himself on 
those who had been hostile to his mother. He 
failed to avenge himself; on the contrary, he was 
" seriously insulted " by the recalcitrants, " so much 
so that he nearly lost, not only the property, but 
his life." The outbreaks continued ; the Illonzians 
actually attacked the castle, and would have de- 
mohshed it had their forces been sufficient — so 
Bernabo, in the end, consented to submit to 
arbitration. Things were of course "arbitrated" 
in his favour, for one of the greatest abuses of the 
time (says GiofFredo) was the violation of justice, 
and the ease with which anyone could escape punish- 
ment by paying. The further career of this very 
Bernabo affords a signal instance of such scandals. 
Quarrels with his vassals were not enough for the 
intractable young man. He found some crow to 
pick with every neighbour he had, and especially 



76 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

with one Francesco Cays Cavaliere.^ Later, when 
this Francesco died, his son Bertrand resolved to 
avenge the many insults and injuries which his 
father had received ; so he one day attacked the 
bullying Bernabo with a poignard, "or some such 
long-bladed weapon," wounded him seriously but 
not mortally, and then (somewhat ignominiously, one 
cannot but think) took refuge in his Castle of Rovra, 
" meaning to stay there till things quieted down." 

But Bernabo was thirsting for Bertrand's blood. 
He got together his adherents — who came, some 
of them, from Cays Cavaliere's very own Rovra, 
" for he had many enemies " — and besieged the 
castle : took it, and sacked it from end to end. 
Bertrand was thrust into a dungeon and kept there 
for some time — then *' in cold blood, they cut 
off his hand, and still more barbarously, put out 
his eyes " ; and, a few days later, he died of pain 
and grief. '* To such excesses," laments Gioffredo, 
" can a vindictive heart conduct a man ; but it was 
not difficult to obtain grace and pardon even after 
such horrors as these " — once the requisite sum of 
money had been paid into the Treasury. Nor was 
mere pardon all that was accorded. Bernabo and 
his elder brother Guglielmo were further declared 
to be exempt from all subsidies, gratuities, and any 
taxes whatsoever in connection with the Seigneurie 
of Bueil. "This was how these gentry managed 

' This family was connected with the Grimaldis, Francesco 
" Malizia " having married Beatrix Cays Cavaliere. 



The Black Sheep 77 

to make a great show with the aid of other folks' 
money," comments the sardonic historian of the 
Maritime Alps. 



A less amusing " sport " was one Antonio, brother 
of Charles the Great. Of the latter I shall have 
something to tell in future pages. Antonio was the 
black sheep of the inveterately successful flock. He 
was an admiral — since he wasn't a general — and he 
began quite well, for in 1332 he defeated brilliantly 
the " Catalan Pirates," those scourges of the coast in 
general, and of the Grimaldis in particular. The 
Catalan pirates were the creatures of the Aragonese 
princes — rivals with Italy for the empire of the sea. 
Their city was Barcelona, renowned for all things naval; 
they had, backed up by such resources, succeeded in 
capturing the Island of Sardinia, but the island (as is 
the way of such small deer) had quickly revolted. 
That had been Genoa's opportunity. She had flown 
to help the Sards, and from that hour had begun a 
five-yeared struggle. The Catalans, also in league 
with Venice — that ancient, destined foe, who ever 
since 1206 had had her jealous eye on Genoa ^ — made 

* Hostilities had been recurrent since 1206, when Genoa had aided 
in the wresting of the Island of Candia from Venice. There had 
been pitched battles, in which Genoa was usually victorious ; but a 
peace had been signed after Venice's crushing defeat in 1297, when 
her Admiral, Dandolo, beat out his brains against the bulwarks of 
his ship. Now, in 1331, the rivalry broke out again, Venice joining 
with the Catalan pirates to harass Genoa, who was torn as well by 
her never-ending internal quarrels. 



78 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

their first onset at Monaco, the " strong little place " 
which was afforded so many trials of its strength. 
Charles Grimaldi beat them off; they then ravaged 
the coasts of Liguria ; next year, Charles made 
reprisals, and Antonio won the battle to which I have 
alluded. By 1337, the Catalans were brought low. 
They humbly sued for peace — but let not the san- 
guine reader dream that peace, whatever it might do 
for others, could by any means ensue for Monaco. 
No sooner were the corsairs quiescent, than all the 
misery broke out again at Genoa : that tedious old 
Four Families affair ! 

The Doria and Spinola were on top in 1339, 
when the discontent of some Genoese sailors who 
were serving Philip VI of France under Antony 
Doria, blazed suddenly into open insurrection. 
Some of the sailors left the fleet and returned to 
Genoa ; they stirred up feeling in the towns and 
villages ; Savona rose against " the nobles," the 
populace seized the town, and soon the sedition 
invaded Genoa. The two families were accused of 
tyranny and treachery, and the people loudly re- 
demanded the right (which had been taken fi-om 
them) to appoint an Abbot, or People's Magistrate — 
one whose special duty it was to guard the plebeian 
interests. But instead of an Abbot, the mob, with 
characteristic mutability, found that by the end of 
the day they had elected a Doge ! This was Simon 
Boccanegra, a noble, yet of democratic sympathies, 
and the people had originally desired him to be their 



Choosing an Abbot, and Getting a Doge 79 

Abbot. He, however, was both prudent and am- 
bitious. *' Choose some one," he replied, " to whom 
this title of Abbot more properly belongs." The 
people were at first offended ; then they perceived 
that he was right, that an Abbot must come from 
among themselves. Their hearts were, nevertheless, 
irrevocably set on Simon : and they cried out 
vehemently, *' Be then our Duke ! " To that he 
consented, and in such dramatic fashion was chosen 
the first Doge of Genoa. 

Boccanegra proved worthy of the eager choice. 
He was an astute and brilliant ruler, a generous and 
high-hearted man. Nevertheless, as might have 
been expected, the Four Families detested him ; 
plots were incessantly attempted, but all failed until 
in 1344 the malcontents, forgetting their private 
enmities, joined in a march against Genoa which 
soon developed into a siege. The Genoese were 
frightened ; they offered to let the Families enter, 
and to restore them to their estates. The besiegers 
refused, " until the Doge have dismissed his guard " 
— which consisted of seven hundred men. Boc- 
canegra saw that all was lost. He solemnly deposed 
himself, and retired to Pisa, where he remained 
till 1356. 

One John de Morta was elected Doge on Christ- 
mas Day, 1344. The malcontents — that is, the 
Nobles — were received, and their estates restored ; a 
few, however, were forbidden to come within ten 
miles of the town, and amongst these were the 



8o The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

Grimaldis, who had now been masters of Monaco 
since 1338. They had fortified themselves there, 
and made it the refuge of their party, collecting " a 
number of gens sans aveUy of wild, unfortunate 
debtors or criminals, whom they employed in 
piratical expeditions along the coast, pillaging with- 
out distinction every vessel that fell into their hands." 
In 1346, they gathered a force and threatened 
Genoa. The city realised her danger, but funds 
were low — she therefore appealed to her richest 
citizens, summoning them to bear the expense of 
fitting out a fleet, for which they were to reimburse 
themselves, as time permitted, out of the revenues 
of the Republic. This was the origin of the famous 
Bank of St. George. 

But the Grimaldis, with their corsairs, suddenly 
sailed away at a tangent to help Philip of France 
against Edward III of England — as we shall see 
presently ; and so, for the moment, Genoa knew 
tranquillity. Then, in 1353, came Antonio Grimaldi's 
fatal encounter at Loiera, which obliged the city to 
relinquish her independence, and place herself under 
the dominion of the Dukes of Milan.^ The disaster 
was tremendous. Forty galleys were lost, more 
than two thousand men were killed, and three thou- 
sand five hundred were taken prisoners. Antonio, 
to whose " ineptitude and cowardice " (in truth, a 
strange Grimaldi !) the whole horror was attributed, 

' Antonio was fighting for his native town, for the Four Families 
always rallied round her in the Venetian troubles. 



A Great Point Gained 8i 

fled to Genoa, which was now once more " filled 
with strife and consternation." So far-reaching were 
the effects of this defeat that the city had to bow 
her head to the dust. She called in the Visconti of 
Milan, the famous "Vipers " — the family whose spell 
(men said) could only be explained by witchcraft, for 
they were parvenus^ usurpers, supplanters, yet their 
power grew and grew, until " they were the object of 
every league formed in Italy for nearly fifty years," 

That was what the black sheep of the Grimaldis 
did for Genoa, but meanwhile his brother Charles 
had been keeping up the family reputation for 
success. I can give no better proof of it than the 
fact that he is allowed by the terrible Rendu to have 
been, really and actually and beyond dispute, the first 
Sovereign Lord of Monaco ! 



CHAPTER IV 



Charles Grimaldi — The Sovereignty of Monaco — The Day of Crecy 
— The Grimaldis lose Monaco — The story of Jane of Naples. 



CHAPTER IV 

CHARLES GRIMALDI, called The Great, was 
the eldest son of the renowned Rainier, and 
of Margharita Ruffo, " of the Counts of Sinope." 
From the beginning of his manhood, he had been 
harassed by the Catalan pirates. Their amazing 
leader, Roger de Loria, — " the Blake of the Middle 
Ages " — was dead before Charles's contact with them, 
but his spirit had survived : the Catalans had seemed 
unconquerable ! I have already shown that under 
this new Grimaldi's leadership that delusion dis- 
appeared. Nor did he occupy himself solely with 
such gentry. In 1335, he pestered Genoa in true 
Guelfic fashion ; again, in 1338 his vessels appeared 
before his native town, blocking her harbour, 
damaging her commerce ; and later in the same 
year a great event took place — a Guelf and Grimaldi 
triumph of the first order. In July, Charles bought 
from Niccolo Spinola, in the market-place of St. 
Luke at Genoa, for 1280 golden florins, (a huge 
sum in those days), " the lands, houses, and 
* immovable property' " which Charles II of Anjou 
had presented to the great Ghibelline family in 
85 



86 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

1303. In other words, Charles Grimaldi bought 
Monaco. 

"An asylum for bankrupts and a refuge for 
criminals, it was like an impregnable citadel for 
its masters (1344), whence, indefatigable pirates as 
they were, they ravaged the coasts of Liguria, and 
showed mercy to none." So wrote Ubertus Folieta, 
an historian of this period, of Charles Grimaldi's 
rule, and all other chroniclers echo him. In justice 
to Charles, though, it ought to be remembered that 
he was then engaged in fighting far away for 
Philip VI of France, whose ally he was in the 
struggle against Edward III of England — that 
Hundred Years' War which was to stain with its 
crimson the reign of five French kings. It was 
after the overwhelming defeat in the naval battle of 
Ecluse that Philip VI appealed to Charles Grimaldi, 
who was already famous as a commander, and 
whose father had been an Admiral of France under 
Philip IV. Charles instantly assented. He equipped 
a fleet of thirty-two galleys and twelve thousand 
men, which was soon ready to sail under his and 
Antony Doria's command. The Dorias were one 
of the great Ghibelline families, but despite this 
rivalry they were much allied by marriage with the 
Grimaldis. Moreover, by this time the Guelf and 
Ghibelline nightmare was slightly loosening its 
clutch upon Europe. . . In true Grimaldi-fashion 
Charles avenged Ecluse, for in 1343 he annihilated 
the English fleet. Alas ! 'twas but a momentary 



Froissart Admires English Tactics 87 

gleam. The Star of France was in eclipse ; only 
three years later came the' desperate day of Cr6cy. 

Edward III had landed in Normandy, and was 
ravaging the country. Philip had collected a formid- 
able army ; its vanguard was to be the renowned 
Genoese archers under Charles Grimaldi and Antony 
Doria. These numbered fifteen thousand men. 
Edward, knowing the greater strength of the French 
army, thought at first of a retreat, but a small suc- 
cess at Blanchetache decided him to give battle. On 
the morning of August 26, 1346, Philip, " mounted 
on his little palfrey, a white baton in his hand "... 
went from rank to rank, admonishing and exhorting 
his gentlemen, " quilz vouhissent entendre,'' to guard 
his honour and defend his right. " Et ce disait si 
doulcement et de si fier chiere^ que qui fut desconforte^ il 
fut reconforte, en lui oyant et regardant^ The French 
host then came on by forced marches, while the 
English, in three divisions, " seaient jus a terre tout 
bellement'' — in Froissart's admiring, wistful phrase! 
As soon as they saw the French, they rose *' moult 
ordonnement, sans nul effroi^' and Philip, coming 
nearer, beheld the steadfast ranks. " Et le sang lui 
mua^ car il les he ait ^ et dit a ses marechaux, ' Faites 
passer les Genevois ' (the Genoese archers) * devant, 
et commencez la bataille au mm de Dieu et de Saint 
Denis: " 

The Genoese were desperately weary and out- 
worn ; they had marched more than six leagues, 
all armed and with their heavy bows, " and they 



88 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

said at once to their constables that they were not 
then fit to make any great exploit in battle." These 
words reached the Count of Alen9on, who was hotly 
angered by them, and said, " We do well to cumber 
ourselves with this rabble, who fail us at need ! " 
By this time rain was falling, " si grosse et si epaisse 
que merveilleSy et un tonnerre et un escUstre moult grand 
et moult horrible " ; moreover, the^sky was further 
darkened by a huge flock of crows, ^^que sans nombre'' 
— which, by an ancient superstition, foretold a great 
and bloody battle. The rain had slackened the bow- 
strings of the archers, and when it ceased and the 
sun came out, the light was dazzling in the French 
army's eyes. But the Genoese bravely rallied. 
They uttered their ringing battle-cry (perhaps it was 
an inheritance from the Saracen tecbir !), meaning 
thus to terrify the English ; " mais les Anglais se 
tinrent tous cois, ni oncques nen jirent semblant^ 
Thrice the Genoese shouted, then rushed forward 
and began to draw. . . But the rain had done 
its work. Their onslaught failed. The English, 
snugly entrenched as they were, could adjust their 
arrows cunningly — yet thrice the blinded Genoese 
dashed forward. " Death rained into their ranks." 
Doria fell first, then Charles Grimaldi, dangerously 
wounded,^ and the archers, flinging away their use- 
less weapons, hurled backward on the French army. 

' According to Villani, Charles was killed at Cr6cy ; but Zurita 
says that he led an expedition in the following spring. Gioffredo 
thinks that Zurita referred to one of Charles's sons. No later writer 
casts any doubt at all on his survival of his wounds at Cr6cy. 



Poetic Justice on the Field of War 89 

But between them and their allies was now a great 
wall of English soldiers, so that when they tried to 
retreat they could not. The King of France, "/><^r 
grand mautalent^' cried out, " Come, kill all this 
rabble quickly, for they impede us uselessly!" (^'■Or 
toty tuez toute cette ribaudaille^ car Us nous empechent 
la vote sans raison") This ferocious order brought 
about the destruction of the French army, for the 
gens d'armes, charging the Genoese, fell into con- 
fusion, there ensued a hopeless mellay, the English, 
seeing their opportunity, dashed in . . . and so 
began the fatal Day of Crecy. No heroism on the 
French side could redeem that insane brutality: 
poetic justice had, for once, appeared upon the 
battlefield. 



Charles, recovering from his almost fatal wounds, 
fought at the Siege of Calais in 1347, " but he was 
never to number among his victories a decisive one 
against the English. Calais fell, and soon afterwards, 
he returned to Monaco." It was now as though the 
wheel of fortune had turned. Thenceforward, all went 
wrong. In 1353 (as we have seen) came Antonio's 
disaster atLoiera ; and, four years later, the Siege of 
Monaco by Simon Boccanegra, then restored to 
power after his deposition and flight.^ He was 
re-elected Doge in 1356, and his first anxiety was to 
win back the inhabitants of the two Rivieras. He 

* See preceding chapter. 



90 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

seemed likely to succeed ; he soon had the region at 
his disposal, except the towns of Savona and Vin- 
timiglia and the fortress of Monaco, which, being 
under the influence of the Grimaldis and other 
exiled Genoese nobles, refused to submit. Savona 
was quickly reduced ; Vintimigli^ was brought low 
also — the Grimaldis, to whom it now belonged, (as 
we shall see directly), were allowed to retire to 
Monaco. Then came the turn of our Rock. There 
were fourteen Genoese vessels, with six from Pisa ; 
these blockaded the harbour. Four thousand in- 
fantry were dispersed over the hill below La Turbia, 
and they held every access so closely that Monaco 
could look for no help from outside. There was no 
food, no water,^ and, practically, no army. " The 
old lion seemed to multiply himself, he was every- 
where ! " — but from the first there had been no 
hope : after a month's heroic resistance, Monaco 
surrendered. The Grimaldis were " out " again, 
after a rule of nineteen years. 

Charles, the " old lion," retired to Mentone, 
which was his own property, for in 1346, just before 
leaving for Crecy, he had bought from the Ventos, 
(who were sovereign lords there), the castle and 
territory of Mentone together with their entire 
possessions in Roccabruna and Vintimiglia, for the 
sum of sixteen thousand golden florins. He had 

^ " Monaco, being built on a rock, has no spring-water, and in 
those days the tanks that are now constructed to hold rain-water 
did not exist." (Pemberton: The History of Monaco. 1867.) 



Charles Advances his Family 91 

enriched his family with many a valuable fief besides ; 
moreover, Philip VI, in reward for his services, 
(" but not for his victories, since he gained none "), 
had given him much land and many high commercial 
privileges. Greatly indeed had Charles Grimaldi 
advanced the family-interests. His territorial 
acquisitions, the increase of military and maritime 
power, (" the navy of Monaco was raised by him to a 
rank higher than any other in the Mediterranean "), 
his illustrious renown in Europe and the East, the 
wide development of commerce — all these things 
(remarks Boyer de Sainte-Suzanne) earned justly for 
him that title of The Great by which he is 
distinguished. 

At Mentone he lived thenceforth, and died there 
in 1363, the same year in which his enemy Bocca- 
negra was treacherously poisoned. He had sub- 
mitted to harsh destiny, but his family, restless 
and humiliated at Nice, had never ceased to plot 
for the expulsion of the Genoese from Monaco. 
Boccanegra, during the latter years of his life, had 
been warned of this ; he had threatened the Queen 
of Naples ^ with war if the conspirators were not 
discovered and punished, for Nice was in her 
domain.^ The Seneschal of Provence proceeded 
against the Grimaldis and their partisans ; and the 
upshot was a peace between the Genoese and the 

* This was Jane I, who, to her sorrow, succeeded her grandfather, 
Robert the Wise, in 1343. 

^ She was Countess of Provence also, by Robert's arbitrary will. 
(See next chapter.) 



92 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

angry family, which was signed at Mentone in 1363 
— the year of Charles's death. 

He had married a Spinola, and by her had six 
children. The two eldest, Rainier and Charles, 
succeeded him as joint-lords in Mentone, Rocca- 
bruna, and Castiglione ; ^ but Rainier was not to 
re-enter Monaco for thirty-eight years. 



The Grimaldi fortunes now became intertwined 
with those of a most enigmatic, lovely, and unlucky 
lady — that Jane of Naples who has been called the 
Mary Stuart of the fourteenth century. She was 
the granddaughter of Robert I, surnamed unde- 
servedly The Wise, for never did adoring grand- 
parent more diligently sow the wind for his darling ; 
and the ensuing whirlwind which raged incessantly 
round her golden head may be said to have begun 
when she was eight years old. 

Of course it was a question of "the succession." 
Morally and legally there was no doubt about it. 
Jane was not the rightful heir to the throne of 
Naples ; that heir was Carobert, her cousin, son 
of the King of Hungary. The trouble had first 
menaced so far back as 1305 — twenty years before 
she was born — in the reign of Charles II of Anjou, 
Robert's father. Charles II's eldest son died several 



• From this son Charles descend the Grimaldis, conseigneurs of 
Mentone, who ceded their rights to the town to Lambert Grimaldi 
at the end of the fifteenth century. 




J O AIS the ft'rsl jf that Mamc Qii. n '^N.pl, 
. for her Incontincncj and other wicked PradiLs was || 
yutto Death. Anno 13 8J- ■ .. .^ ill 



From an engraving by William Marshall. 

JANE THE FIRST, 

Queai of Naples. 
p. 92] 



Royal and Papal Heads Together 93 

years before him, but left an heir, Carobert, who by 
right of his grandmother was King of Hungary,^ 
and also, as I have said, beyond all question the 
rightful sovereign of Naples. Charles II recognised 
that ; but whatever he may have proposed, it was 
the Pope — at that time Boniface VIII — who did the 
disposing ; and Boniface needed a strong ally at 
Naples.^ Charles was not only Boniface's ally ; he 
was his slave. But how when the Angevin should 
die, and the savage Magyars should invade the land 
of Italy as part-proprietors ? . . . Boniface infected 
Charles with his own uneasiness ; very gravely they 
put their heads together over the question of uniting 
such discrepant crowns. The two races were an- 
tagonistic to the core ; they could never coalesce. 
So far Boniface and Charles were right. Politically, 
their hesitation was wise ; morally and legally, it 
was indefensible. But men — and especially Popes — 
easily threw off such scruples in those days. The 
pair sketched out a scheme whereby Carobert should 
be dispossessed ; then Boniface died, and soon after 
him Charles — and the first crisis came. 

There then ^reigned at Avignon, not at Rome, 
that Pope Clement V who first took the Papal Chair 
from Italy to France. This had been the result of 

* The Hungarian crown descended in the female line. Queen 
Mary of Hungary (succeeding on the death of her brother Ladislaus) 
had married Charles II of Anjou. 

* To aid him in his dual warfare with Philippe-le-Bel of France, 
(who detested him), and with Henry VII, soi-disant Holy Roman 
Emperor — for the title was then in abeyance. 



94 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

Philippe-le-Bel's long feud with Boniface. Boniface 
dying, the French desired a more friendly Pope. 
France was at that time very powerful ; matters 
usually fell out as she devised ; and Bertrand de 
Got, Archbishop of Bordeaux, was duly elected as 
Clement V. Because of the many recalcitrant 
cardinals at Rome, Clement resolved to fix his 
Court beyond the Alps, and the Holy See was thus 
transferred to Avignon. 

This drew the Kings of Naples into still closer 
alliance, for Avignon was in Proven9al, that is, 
Angevin, territory. Clement, needing an ally there 
as much as Boniface had done, desired Robert, 
Charles's third son,^ to be king. Carobert was 
therefore finally excluded from his inheritance. The 
Pope's fiat was absolute : Carobert bent beneath 
the rod. But complications soon announced them- 
selves, for Robert's only son, Charles, Duke of 
Calabria, died (as Charles II's had done) long 
before his father, and left only daughters. These 
were our heroine Jane, and her younger sister 
Mary, a posthumous child. The female succession 
rarely fails to bring trouble in its train. Robert, 
realising this, did what he could to avert it. He 
arranged that the two Neapolitan princesses should 
wed the two Hungarian princes : Jane marrying 
Andrew the younger, and Mary, Louis, who was 
heir to the Hungarian crown. There were elements 
of justice and imagination in this scheme, but the 

' The second son, Louis, was in holy orders. 



Robert sees too Late 95 

element of common-sense there was not ; for the 
incompatibility of the crowns and races, thus brought 
together after all, would be greatly aggravated by 
the fact that wedlock was the link. Contention 
between Andrew and Jane about the degree of 
authority to which each was entitled would come 
inevitably : one would suppose that anybody must 
have foreseen that. But Robert did not foresee 
it ; and when little Jane was eight years old 
(1333) she was formally betrothed to Andrew of 
Hungary. 

Not only was she the future Queen of Naples, 
but, to complete her doom, he had made her 
heiress of Provence as well — thus ignoring the will 
of Charles II, who had devised Provence to his 
heirs male. It therefore belonged to Robert's 
brother, Philip, Duke of Taranto.^ But Robert 
cast the will aside. He named Jane (and, in her 
default, Mary) heiress of the Proven9al States, 
which he declared to be inseparably united to the 
crown of Naples. . . And then, having sowed 
these mighty winds, having in 1342, (when she 
was seventeen), married Jane irrevocably to Andrew 
of Hungary, having, shortly afterwards, beheld the 
earliest menace of the storm which was to beat 
upon her head — Robert the Wise gave up his 
ghost, and eighteen-yeared Jane took up her in- 
heritance. 



^ And, failing him or his posterity, to John, Duke of Durazzo, the 
eighth son of Charles II. 



96 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

She was lovely, passionate, and proud ; she had 
been brought up in the gayest and most cultured 
court of the period. Her father, Charles of Calabria, 
had been one of the most delightful of men, instinct 
with the humour, na'lvet^, and eccentricity which, 
in rulers, enchant the imagination of posterity. Her 
mother was Mary of Valois, so she had the Royal 
Blood of France from both sides. History has 
much to whisper of the fair frail girl ; Brantome, 
treating of her in his Dames Illustres^ tells such 
anecdotes as make one marvel that he did not 
rather include her among the Dames Galantes. 
Most of the Italian historians speak quite definitely 
of her licence. Tall, golden-haired, and blue-eyed, 
with an angelic smile and a keen, cultivated intellect, 
there was no hope that Andrew of Hungary could 
satisfy any demand she had to make. All her life 
she had mixed with distinguished men, for Robert 
was a great patron of learning. " Messer Giovanni 
Boccaccio " haunted the Neapolitan Court, Petrarch 
was Apostolic Legate, Giotto owed his career to 
the kindly Angevin king, minstrels and troubadours 
abounded : life was often as fair and smiling as the 
azure sky above. Had been as fair and smiling, 
rather — for all the gaiety seemed to die away when 
Jane married her cousin Andrew. Coming as a 
lad to live amongst them in preparation for his 
future kingship, Andrew had been a kill-joy from 
the first. Awkward, ugly, inert, and gluttonous, 
haunted by a beetle-browed, filthy Friar Robert, 



Robertas Nightmare 97 

his tutor, the unwelcome betrothed skulked about 
the silken court, hating and suspecting everything 
and everybody. He despised the airy Neapolitans, 
yet — like many another unfortunate of the same 
humour ! — he was convinced that they were always 
laughing at him. Perhaps they sometimes were. 
He was so ugly, slovenly, stupid ; his speech was 
so uncouth. There were encouragements to mirth, 
moreover, and they came from very near the very 
highest quarters. They came from the Princess 
Jane's governess, in fact — that Philippa the Catanian 
who disputes with Madame Sans-Gene the place 
of the most famous laundress in history. Clever, 
handsome, and "possibly blameless," this woman's 
influence over the little Jane had grown to be para- 
mount ; and between her and Andrew's pestilential 
tutor, daggers were of course drawn at first sight. 
The Hungarian party at Court grew in unpopularity 
with every sneer that Philippa sneered ; and when, 
in 1342, (before Robert's death), Carobert of Hungary 
died, and Louis, the designated husband of Jane's 
younger sister Mary, succeeded — the masks fell from 
all faces, and the doting grandfather stared upon 
the nightmare of his foolish dream. Louis instantly 
repudiated the matrimonial arrangement, and treated 
for the daughter of the King of Bohemia. Robert 
resorted to another "last will and testament," where- 
by Andrew was excluded from the sovereignty of 
Naples and described merely as Queen's consort. Then 
he died, as I have shown, and in 1343 Naples 

7 



98 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

and Provence owned Jane as sole and sovereign 
mistress. 

Petrarch, at that time Apostolic Legate, wrote to 
a friend about the miserable situation. " I see two 
lambs in the midst of wolves — a monarchy without 
a monarch " ; for Jane was too doomed a figure 
for anyone to behold unmoved, while Andrew, 
poor lout, was the tool of his unsavoury friar — 
"that monster, who" (to continue Petrarch's 
eloquent outpouring) " oppresses the weak, despises 
the great, and treats the two queens with the utmost 
insolence." ^ The entire group of the Royal family 
of Naples, Taranto, and Durazzo, loathed the 
Hungarians ; Jane was already alienated from her 
lubberly spouse, and all the more, because a 
fascinating Cousin Luigi of Taranto had appeared 
upon the scene, much brought into her company 
by his mother Catherine whom Jane adored, and 
who was thoroughly " soaked " in the NeapoHtan 
atmosphere — not, as I have hinted, an austere one. 
Thus all were so far (but no further) agreed as 
to want the luckless Andrew out of the way ; and 
matters were in this high-strung state when, later in 
the year of Robert's death, the Durazzo party took 
a bold step. Duke Charles of that branch was now, 
by his father's death, rightful heir to the Provengal 
States. He ran off with, and forcibly married, Jane's 



* The two queens were Jane, and Robert's widow, Sancha, 
who, unable to endure the state of affairs, soon took refuge in a 
convent. 



The ** Persuasion*' of Jane 99 

sister Mary — heiress as she was in Jane's default to 
all that Jane at that moment possessed ! A dagger 
drawn in the queen's face could not more definitely 
have threatened her life. Moreover, Hungary caught 
at the pretext, and Louis, not yet married to his 
Princess of Bohemia, angrily reminded Naples that 
Mary was his promised bride. Naples heard un- 
moved ; and, frantic with apprehension, (since all 
Durazzo had to accomplish was to kill Jane off, and 
then, by right of his wife, proclaim himself King of 
Naples), Louis turned to Avignon. Avignon was to 
be bribed to press forward Andrew's coronation. 
Two years went by before Avignon moved ; then, 
urged by Andrew's mother, Elizabeth of Hungary, 
Clement VI showed his hand by sending a legate 
to govern Naples. That was in 1344; in 1345, 
Elizabeth herself arrived at Avignon to urge the 
coronation. Thence she went on to Naples, to 
" persuade " Jane. Whatever she did to Jane — and 
persuasion may be safely regarded as a euphemism 
— Jane at last assented. The long-delayed coro- 
nation was arranged to take place on September 20, 

1345- 

In that month the Court went into villeggiatura 
at Aversa, " in a lonely convent of the Celestines." 
On the night of the i8th, the queen had retired, 
her husband being with her, when a chamberlain 
came to announce that grave news had arrived from 
Naples and that the councillors were awaiting the 
future king's orders. He rose and made ready. 



loo The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

The queen seemed troubled, she even sought to stop 
his going, but he went to the door, passed through, 
shut it behind him — and was seized by the neck 
in the dark corridor. The assassins made no 
attempt to stab him, for they believed that he wore 
a ring which was a sure talisman against steel or 
poison : strangulation was to be the mode of death. 
But Andrew so vigorously resisted that all they 
could do was to drag him to a window, whence 
they flung him down to others in the garden 
beneath, and these had no difficulty in doing the 
deed in the chosen manner. . . It was a fragrant, 
moonless night, mysterious and silent — and the 
struggle, breaking on the enchanted air, awoke 
Andrew's old nurse, Isolda, who rushed to the 
queen's room and found her alone, sitting near 
the bed, her face buried in her hands. Isolda 
asked for the king, whereupon the queen answered 
so strangely that the old woman ran to the window 
with a torch, and by that light alone, perceived the 
body on the ground. " With a great cry, she 
summoned the Court to vengeance." 

Sismondi tells the story thus ; other historians 
say that Andrew was killed in the corridor, and 
his body suspended from one of the barred windows 
of the convent. Some days before the murder, 
Jane had been busy making a long thick cord of 
gold silk. " What is it for ? " the idly-lounging 
Andrew had asked her. '* To hang you with," 
she had answered, with curled mocking lips. . . 



Was Jane Guilty? loi 

Honor6 Bouche (a very impartial setter-forth of 
her story) dismisses this anecdote as incredible. 
Such an answer would, he says, too surely have 
proved her complicity. Nevertheless, the odd truth 
is that Andrew's strangulation or hanging or both — 
whichever be the fact as to the mode of death — 
was accomplished by means of a thick, new golden 
cord. 

Muratori says that " it would be easier to turn 
a negro white than to clear the Queen of Naples 
of the murder of Andrew." Our own weighty 
Hallam refuses any decisive pronouncement : " I 
cannot venture positively to rescind the verdict of 
history." Most of the great Italians are against 
her, but we must remember that they were 
Ghibelline, while she was Guelf; in favour of 
her are Petrarch, Boccaccio, Angelo da Perugia, 
Baldus, Niccolo Acciajuoli — but these, we must 
also remember, were close personal friends. It is 
indeed like Mary Stuart and Darnley ; and will 
remain, no doubt, as insoluble a problem for 
historians. My own opinion inclines to a belief 
in her complicity. Much is said by her champions 
of her amiability and sweetness ; but these are 
virtues automatically assigned to feminine royalty, 
and we find no actual testimony to her possession of 
them. Another argument much used in her defence 
is that of her pregnancy ^ at the time of Andrew's 

* Her son, Charles Martel, was born on the Christmas Day 
following. He died when he was only three years old. 



I02 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

murder. It cuts both ways, for the aberration of 
women at such periods has pl-oduced blacker doings 
than this. The chief point — and there is not a 
scintilla of doubt with regard to it — is that with all 
her heart and soul she hated Andrew of Hungary, 
and loved Luigi of Taranto. He was her lover, it 
is true, but she wanted him to be her King as well ^ 
he was the only one of her four husbands to whom 
she not only gave that title, but insisted on giving it. 
Well, however it were, Andrew was out of the 
way. Jane returned to Naples, taking the body 
with her ; and found herself at once arraigned by 
Charles of Durazzo, who had, as I have related, 
married her sister Mary. He called upon the 
people to avenge their king's murder ; and though 
the people had had no king, nor any fancy for the 
prospect of having that one, decency demanded 
investigation. A trial was begun at Charles's 
palace, before Clement VI. Many were accused, 
many tortured, "in fashions too terrific and atro- 
cious for detail." ^ Some of the prisoners had 
their tongues cut out before examination by 
Durazzo's orders. He was insistent in declaring 
Jane's guilt ; others, no less insistent, accused him. 
*' If one was guilty, the other cannot have been, 
for they were deadly enemies." That is the com- 
ment of many writers ; and it does more credit to 

* Philippa the Laundress was among the earliest victims. So 
awful were her sufferings that she died on the way to final execu- 
tion. Her son and daughter were done to death amid devilries 
unspeakable. 



Letters 103 

their simplicity than to their understanding of a 
crafty and ambitious nature. There could be 
nothing astonishing in Charles's knowledge of Jane's 
complicity in a plot which he had himself insti- 
gated. So long as she did not know that he had 
instigated it, (and that is of course a necessary 
condition), it is far more probable that he would 
have sought to draw her in than to exclude her, 
for her guilt would justify all that he might do 
against her ; while his claim (through Mary) to 
the crown of Naples and the rest would, when 
claims should come to be investigated, prove at 
least as good as the King of Hungary's. Hence, 
beyond all doubt, the torn-out tongues of the pos- 
sibly dangerous witnesses. Charles was guilty, I 
am convinced ; but I am not convinced that his 
guilt proves Jane's innocence. 



The suspicions of Jane increased, as the awful 
trial proceeded. Charles kept the public mind alive 
to every damning circumstance, and at last the 
queen was driven to write a letter to her brother- 
in-law of Hungary. " I have suffered such intense 
torture by the murder of my beloved husband that, 
stunned by grief, I well-nigh died of the same 
wounds." These somewhat overcharged phrases 
were convincing for the Pope ; for Louis of 
Hungary they were but " windy suspirations of 
forced breath." His letter in reply, which came 



I04 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

only after long delay, is one of the great laconi- 
cisms of history. 

" Jane, 

" The disorders of your past life, the am- 
bition which has caused you to retain the Royal 
power, the belated vengeance and the excuses 
alleged, all suffice to prove that you are guilty of 
my brother's death." 

Was curtness ever more pregnant } In that 
single sentence, the claim is as clear as the in- 
dictment. Louis meant to wear the crown of 
Naples. Jane, realising all, married Luigi of 
Taranto, and fled to Avignon. There she was 
permitted to plead her innocence publicly before 
Clement VI. Clement had been torn both ways : 
Louis was urgent, Jane was urgent — and Jane had 
Avignon. To have Avignon was, in Clement's 
view, to have the inestimable. He made up his 
mind. He received Jane with open arms, heard 
her cause, acquitted her wholly, "she was his 
blameless and beloved daughter " — all, all for 
Avignon ! He got his Avignon. In, June 1348, 
Jane, needing money to fight the invading Louis, 
sold Clement the Papal town for 80,000 golden 
florins (about ^^ 60,000 of our money) ; and so 
the City of Bells, as Rabelais called it, passed away 
from the Counts of Provence. 

Louis of Hungary had invaded Italy in the end 



Louis Avenges Andrew 105 

of 1347, under his famous Strangling Banner — a 
grim black standard whereon was depicted the 
murder of Andrew. He had done more than that, 
for in 1347, paying a commemorative visit to Aversa, 
the avenging brother had indeed avenged. He had 
killed Charles of Durazzo in the very window 
from which Andrew had been hung, or flung ! . . . 
He was actually in Naples itself when Jane sold 
Avignon ; but a strange ally now came to aid her. 
The Black Death hunted the Black Banner from 
the land.^ Just as Jane arrived at the Papal 
town, Petrarch's Laura died in it of the pestilence ; 
the plague was soon raging there and in Naples, 
and Louis' army was decimated. He fled the 
country, leaving the government of Naples to 
one Conrad de Loup, "wolf by name and wolf 
by nature," says Honor6 Bouche. This man's 
cruelties were so desperate that the Neapolitans 
recalled Jane, She came, with her loved Luigi, 
now Count of Provence. She begged so hard for 
him to be made King that at last Clement con- 
sented : both were crowned in 1352, and Jane, 
now Queen once more of Naples, reigned there 
for thirty years, amid an almost incessant turmoil 
from one side or another of her acquisitive family. 



Two Grimaldis had fought for her against Louis 
of Hungary at Naples ; then, in 1358, Rainier 
' 1348 was the year of the Great Plague. 



io6 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

Grimaldi, the eldest son of Charles I of Monaco, 
came back to his own country from long campaign- 
ing in France. Jane, desirous of attaching him to her 
service, made him Seneschal in Piedmont — that is, 
in the provinces of Coni, Stura, Desmont, and Nice, 
which had been Proven9al territory since Charles I 
of Anjou's time. These provinces were much 
coveted by the Counts of Savoy, for they separated 
Savoy territory from the sea. " We have treated 
Italy as an artichoke, to be eaten leaf by leaf," 
said Charles-Emmanuel III of the now Royal House 
of Italy, in very much later years than these. The 
phrase, consummate in one sense, is in another 
unjust to themselves, since only under the Savoys 
has the " artichoke " grown fully globed. . . These 
Piedmont lands were the leaf at which they were 
then most diligently nibbling. They snatched it 
from Rainier's lips at first, driving him from 
Piedmont in 1362 ; but in 1363, after a terribly 
expensive war, he regained the provinces. He was 
soon to fight for Jane against a still more resolute 
foe — that Louis of Anjou whom she adopted as her 
heir in later years, and who, until she did so, haunted 
her life unceasingly with his predatory schemes. 

In 1368 the war began. Louis engaged as his 
commander the renowned Bertrand du Guesclin, 
who, coming back from a successful campaign in 
Spain, was just then in Languedoc with his band 
of adventurers. It was the age of the great 
condottieri : no less than three come prominently 





Prom an engraving, after a painting by Feron. 

BERTRAND DU GUESCLIN. 
p. I06] 



Was Rainier Grimaldi Bribed ? 107 

into our story. Du Guesclin is one ; Sir John 
Hawkwood, chief of the famous White Company, 
another ; Francesco Carmagnola — a little later on — 
the third. Du Guesclin is by far the most interest- 
ing of the three, and that not because of his renown 
as a filibuster er, but because he is one of the great 
heaux-laids of history — a creature so ugly that, accord- 
ing to his earliest chronicler, " from Rennes to 
Dinant there was no one to compare with him," 
yet a creature, too, so fascinating that he broke 
woman's heart upon woman's heart ! 

Du Guesclin attacked Tarascon for Louis of Anjou, 
and as there was treachery within its walls, Tarascon 
fell. Then came the turn of Aries, a much more 
important place. Aries held out so gallantly that 
Anjou, losing heart, sought to win over the brilliant 
Grimaldi to his own service. DazzHng bribes were 
offered. Gioffredo declares that Rainier accepted 
them, deserted Jane, and followed Louis, " and all 
the more willingly because Louis was soon adopted 
as her heir by the queen herself. Notwithstanding 
which," continues the grim fellow, " Honore 
Bouche, without any specific proofs to offer, has 
elected to believe the contrary." ^ The documents 
arranging for Louis' donations are in the Palace 
of Monaco, dated variously in May and June, 
1368 — the year of the Siege of Aries. How did 

1 Nostradamus, quoted by Gioffredo in his own cause, says that 
at this time Jane did appoint a new Captain-General to resist 
the Angevins— one San Severino. 



io8 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

they get there, if Grimaldi indignantly refused all 
offers ? But we must remember that such trans- 
actions were by no means rare in those days ; also 
that Rainier had long and lovingly served France 
before Jane attached him. Metivier says that he 
repudiated, " for the moment," Louis' offers, but 
hinted that after the war he might consider them. 
The dates upon the documents would seem to prove 
that the hint was a tolerably broad one. . . At 
any rate, Louis of Anjou raised the Siege of Aries, 
abandoned Tarascon, and retired beyond the Rhone. 
In 1369, he gave Grimaldi the title of Admiral 
of the Mediterranean and General of the Maritime 
Armies on the coast of Languedoc. 



By this time Luigi of Taranto had been dead 
for six years, and Jane had been married for five to 
James of Majorca. This she had been " advised " 
to do, and did apparently with some reluctance, 
for Number Three was rigidly refused that title of 
King which had been so ardently given to the adored 
Number Two. James was bitterly offended. He 
left his consort three months after their marriage, 
and went to the war in Spain ; came back, but 
*' remained always a mere cypher," and died in 1374.^ 

Jane married Otho of Brunswick, her fourth 
husband, in 1375, when she was fifty years old. 

* Brantome says that Jane had his head cut off, because he was 
unfaithful to her. 



''Back to Rome'' 109 

Three years after her marriage came the Great 
Western Schism, which lasted from 1378 to 1449. 
In 1377 the Papal Chair had been taken back to 
Rome, through the mediation of that extraordinary- 
woman Catherine of Siena, " the illustrious daughter 
of an obscure Sienese dyer." It was in 1376, when 
she was twenty-nine years old, that this Catherine 
went to Avignon on her great mission. " The 
Western Babylon," as men called it, was filled with 
French cardinals, French legates, French every- 
thing, for the Italians despised the scandalous, 
licentious Court, and kept away from it ; the 
powerful Viscontis were bitterly hostile to the 
Church ; the Sicilians had been on bad terms 
with it ever since the terrible Vespers in 1282. 
France was, in short, Avignon's only friend — and 
the present trouble was that France, ravaged by 
the desolating war with England, could not now 
shelter her Popes as she had once sheltered them. 
So evident had this long been that already, before 
Gregory XI, Urban V had retraced his steps to 
Rome. But once in Italy, he found himself so 
harassed by the Visconti Vipers that in 1370 he 
broke down, and fled "home" to Avignon. He died 
soon after his return, and the cardinals, assembled 
there, chose again a Frenchman for their Pope. 
This was Gregory XI, the Pope whom Catherine of 
Siena brought " back to Rome." He went there 
in 1377, and in 1378, before he could carry out 
his firm intention of returning to France, he died. 



no The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

It was the extraordinary scene at the Vatican after 
his death which caused the Great Schism in the 
Western Church. Italy, by this time, hated 
Avignon so passionately that she was driven to 
fight against the Church itself; and the people, 
crystallising public feeling into a phrase, thronged 
for hours round the Vatican, crying with one voice, 
" Romano volemo lo papa^ Romano lo volemo, o 
almancQy almanco italiano ! " (" We will have the 
Pope Roman — we will have him Roman, or at least, 
at least Italian ! ") The cardinals sat within, and 
heard, and trembled. The trouble out-of-doors was 
not the only trouble : factions in their own Conclave 
were threefold. There was but one point on 
which they were all in harmony, and that was, 
not to elect an Italian ; for the French cardinals 
(who numbered eleven to one Spanish, and four 
Italian !) loathed the Roman sojourn, and longed 
for Avignon again. . . Outside, the cries became 
ever more menacing, more insistent; inside, the 
secret disaffections grew with every hour more 
unrestrained. At last a Neapolitan was suggested — 
the Archbishop of Bari, very learned and devout. 
He was of the Legate of Romagna's party — the 
Legate of Romagna being that Robert of Geneva 
who was afterwards to play so prominent a part. 
Bari was duly elected, and then the cardinals again 
took fright. How were they going to face that 
cursed, howling mob (" ces maudits romains ") with 
the news that lo Papa was not a Roman after 



Red-hats in Fright— and Flight in 

all ? ... It had to be done, and one of them 
went to the window. 

" The Pope is elected." 

" His name .'' " 

But at that the cardinal flinched. " Go to St. 
Pierre and you shall hear." 

In the turmoil, the words Sl Pierre were all that 
reached them — and there was a Cardinal Saint-Pierre 
up for election. He was a Tebaldeschi — a Roman : 
no matter that he was very old and very infirm as 
well. Romano, romano — that was enough ! Off they 
went in glee to sack his palace, according to the 
ancient custom. They sacked it thoroughly, and 
while they were thus busy, Bari was brought to the 
Vatican. But now the crowd rushed back, eager to 
adore the new Pope, and the cardinals, again dis- 
traught with terror, ran away. Meeting members of 
the crowd as they fled, they confirmed the mistake : 
Saint-Pierre is Pope — while to their friends they 
insisted on Bari's correct and canonical election. 
Meanwhile, poor plundered Saint-Pierre was trying 
to keep off the adoring multitude. " I was not 
elected ; I am not Pope, and I don't want to 
be ! " No one would listen to him ; no one came 
to confirm him. Nearly all the cardinals were 
gone. Bari, as terrified as they, hid himself in a 
secret room. . . But at last the anguished day 
drew to a close ; the mob was weary — might not 
the dread announcement be ventured now ? Such 
cardinals as remained in Rome decided to proclaim 



112 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

Bari. No further turbulence broke forth, and, gain- 
ing courage, Bari assumed the name of Urban VI, 
and began that arrogant, detested reign which 
resulted in the paralysing Schism. 



The Queen of Naples was at first delighted that 
a Neapolitan should be elected. She was profuse in 
attentions — she sent Urban VI magnificent presents, 
she despatched to his Court her most distinguished 
nobles ; but the Pope, wrought upon by Hungary, 
received them freezingly, and pointedly insulted 
Otho of Brunswick when he arrived. In 1380, 
Urban went further. He pronounced Jane's de- 
position, freed her subjects from their allegiance, and 
preached a crusade against her. But behold ! by 
this time there were two Popes. Urban might 
fulminate at Rome ; Avignon had its own pontifF, 
and he was that very Robert of Geneva to whose 
party in the Conclave Bari had belonged. For the 
French cardinals in Rome had in 1378 pronounced 
the Holy See vacant, (" because the election was 
made in the midst of a mutinous populace "), had 
then formed a Conclave and elected Robert of 
Geneva Pope, as Clement VII. He was much the 
better choice, but Urban, having the glamour of 
Rome around him, was followed by all Christian 
Europe except Spain, France, and Naples. 

When the Roman Pope joined Durazzo's party 
against Jane, Rainier Grimaldi, who had till then 



The Fate of Jane 1 1 3 

been on his side,^ went over instantly to Clement. 
This was in 1380, the year in which Jane definitely 
excluded Durazzo from the succession, and adopted 
Louis of Anjou as her heir. She presented him 
to her subjects as her " son " and successor ; but 
in the next year (138 1) Urban answered this defiance 
by crowning Durazzo at Rome as Charles III of 
Naples. He soon arrived to take possession. Otho 
of Brunswick was totally unable to oppose him ; 
" without striking a single blow," Durazzo took 
Naples on July 16, 138 1. Jane was imprisoned in 
the castle called Chateau-Neuf, and left with no food ; 
galleys came from Provence to aid her, but they 
arrived so late that all was lost — she capitulated to 
the nephew upon whom in early years she had 
lavished every kindness . . . and he, apt pupil of 
the savage Magyars, " had her suflFocated between 
two mattresses" on May 12, 1382. 

" The races are incompatible." Truly Boniface 
and Charles, those many years ago, had seen aright ; 
and though they did not act aright, we may well 
doubt if any human being could have found " the 
thing to do." Fire and water are more congruous 
than Hungary and Naples. Let us examine the 
death-roll of this story alone. In 1345, Andrew 
of Hungary killed ; in 1347, the first Charles 
of Durazzo killed by Andrew's brother to avenge 

^ In 1379, when Clement VII and his cardinals, hunted from 
Rome, wanted to retire to France and set up " Avignon " again, 
Rainier (then on Urban's side) had taken the rebel cardinals 
prisoners at Mentone. 

8 



114 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

his murder; in 1382, Jane of Naples killed by the 
second Charles of Durazzo, as a further vengeance 
for Andrew's murder ; finally, (to carry the story 
a little beyond our actual range), Charles himself 
killed doubly, first by steel, and when steel proved 
tardy in its work, by poison — killed doubly also, 
in another sense, for his murderers were two 
furious Queens of Hungary,^ forced by him to 
abdicate when he came from Italy in 1385 as 
Charles III, and set the crown of Hungary at last 
beside the crown of Naples. 

Such was the fate which Robert the Wise dealt out 
to his lovely grandchild. Surely she must often 
during her wild, tormented life, have wished, in the 
sanctioned woman's phrase, that " there were no 
such things as crowns." 

' One was Louis of Hungary's eldest daughter Mary, who 
married Sigismund, the second son of the Emperor Charles IV. 
She brought Sigismund the crown of Hungary, and she herself was 
crowned, in her own right, with the title of King\ The other 
Queen was her grandmother Elizabeth, who had been so active in 
the matter of Andrew's coronation in 1345. 



CHAPTER V 

Sir John Hawkvvood and his White Company — The capricious City 
of Genoa — Carmagnola and the horrible Siege of Cremona 
— A Grimaldi heroine at last — Pommeline and Claudine 
Grimaldi. 



CHAPTER V 

AFTER Jane's death came a long tedious period 
of fighting all over Italy. First, in 1382, 
was Louis of Anjou's campaign against Charles of 
Durazzo — or more correctly, Charles III of Naples, 
for Louis never wore the Neapolitan crown. 
The only remarkable circumstances in this fight 
were the first introduction (by Charles) of the 
" De Wet " school of tactics into warfare, and the 
appearance in our chronicle of the famous Sir John 
Hawkwood and his White Company. Hawkwood 
fought for Charles ; Rainier Grimaldi for Louis 
of Anjou. The Durazzo tactics were brilliant. 
They consisted in a continual disappearance from 
everywhere ; moreover, as Durazzo advanced, he 
had the crops destroyed, so that famine for the 
French must have ensued if Rainier — evidently an 
early " best transport-officer since Moses " — had not 
bethought himself of having his galleys well pro- 
visioned. Rainier never won an actual victory 
against Hawkwood ^ and the wonderful White Men, 

^ Contemporary French chroniclers gallicised amusingly the 
picturesque name. It became " Aucud ! " 

"7 



ii8 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

in their glittering steel armour that shone "like 
mirrors," entirely unprofaned by ornament of any 
kind, and their banners, scarves, and plumes of snowy 
white. A brave array ! possibly the one outcome 
of their chief's early training — for Hawkwood had 
begun life as a tailor's apprentice in London. Now he 
was what Hallam describes as " the first real general 
of modern times ; and the greatest and last of the 
Condottieri." 

This campaign was ended in 1384 by the death 
of Louis of Anjou ; and in the same year the 
Grimaldis acquired Antibes from Clement VII, who, 
still entangled in the Schism, found himself ever 
more and more in need of money. He had wrested 
Antibes from the Bishop of Grasse, (who was an 
'* Urbanite "), and now he sold it to the brothers 
Mark and Luke Grimaldi for 9,000 florins.^ Luke 
had been Admiral of Provence under Queen 
Jane, and Charles V of France had made Mark a 
Captain-General. These were rich posts ; Mark 
and Luke were regarded as the fortunate ones of 
the family. At Nice another Grimaldi was, perhaps, 
envying them. This was John de Bueil, of the 
branch come down from Andaro Grimaldi and 
Astruga de Bueil, who figured in an earlier chapter. 
John was Seneschal of Nice, and Amadeus VII of 

■ Papon says they kept it only eight months, and that Clement then 
gave it to the Doge of Genoa ; but Pemberton declares that the 
Grimaldis had it till 1608, when Henry IV of France bought it from 
them for 250,000 florins. Their rule had plainly been a good thing 
for Antibes. 




p. ii8] 



SIR JOHN HAWKWOOD. 



Unhappy Genoa 119 

Savoy was ** approaching " him very strongly for this 
leaf of the artichoke. Louis II of Anjou was still 
contending for that weary Neapolitan crown, so Nice 
was left to the Grimaldi honour — which on this 
occasion broke down. John handed the place over 
to Amadeus^ in 1388, "on consideration of a hand- 
some pension and the hereditary Governorship." 
One imagines that Amadeus must have granted the 
latter condition with an apprehension or two ! He 
did, however, grant it ; then John, hankering for 
more wealth and more power, bethought himself of 
that convenient " strong little place," so near at hand, 
which once had belonged to his House — and per- 
suaded Amadeus to attack Monaco. It belonged to 
Genoa, as we know — the city having wrested it from 
Charles the Great in 1357 ; and Genoa highly 
valued it. But she was in her usual tormented 
condition. Formerly it had been the Four Families : 
now it was the Eight — for the great plebeians had 
entered the field, in the shape of the Houses of 
Adorno, Fregoso, Guarco, and Montaldo. So dis- 
traught was Genoa that she forgot Monaco, and 
John Grimaldi seized it in 1395 — "it fell into his 
hands like a ripe rplum." Emboldened by this 
triumph, John, with his brother Louis, attacked 
Vintimiglia ; but there his luck failed him, and the 
two were taken prisoners by the Genoese. John 

* Nice remained with the Savoys ; later, Dukes of Savoy, later 
still, Kings of Sardinia. In 1419 Yolande of Anjou, unable to pay a 
debt to Amadeus IX, formally, to atone for her defection, abandoned 
all claims to Nice. 



120 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

had already made himself obnoxious to the city 
by his piracies — that ancient Grimaldi failing — and 
she was soon to be in a position to avenge herself 
thoroughly. She had reached a crisis — one of many 
— in her destiny. In 1396 she "offered herself" 
to France, whose King was then Charles VI. He 
accepted her, and sent the Count de Saint-Pol 
as his Governor in 1397 ; but that appointment 
was short-lived. The GhibelHnes complained that 
Saint-Pol favoured the Guelfs ; civil war broke 
out ; Saint-Pol fled — and the new Four Families 
became prominent again, with a Doria, (one of 
the " old " regime)^ joined on to them. The 
tumult was unceasing ; Genoa ran blood. At last 
the people implored Charles VI to send another 
Governor, and hinted that this time they ex- 
pected the best man he had ; for Genoa, like a 
mistress with her lover, was proud of her volun- 
tary submission, and thought herself justified in 
being all the more exacting because there were 
no legal bonds. France rose to the delicate 
situation, and sent Jean le Maingre, Sire de 
Boucicaut, " one of the greatest men in a great 
century." He was a Marshal of France ; he had 
fought under du Gueschn ; he was handsome, 
noble, rich, and proud, " a born ruler, a born 
hero both in body and soul"; he was married to 
one of the most beautiful women of her time, 
Antoinette de:Turenne ; he was a great knight, the 
founder of the order of the Dame Blanche a VEcu 



The Expulsion of John 1 2 1 

vert ^ . . . even for exigent Genoa it seemed that 
Boucicaut was good enough ! He arrived in 1401, 
and won all hearts ; the city was soon his adoring 
slave. Boucicaut was firm, just, and severe ; 
" nothing that was cowardly or dishonourable could 
be endured by him." He soon made acquaintance 
with John de Bueil Grimaldi, who with his brother 
Louis had been set free from prison during Saint- 
Pol's term of office — and had at once recommenced 
his piracies from Monaco. Boucicaut heard of these, 
and was very angry. He advanced upon the Rock, 
surprised it, drove out John de Bueil, and reinstated 
Rainier Grimaldi in the seigneurie which had been 
wrested from Charles, First Lord, in 1357. 

Rainier died in 1407. He had spent but little of 
his time at Port Hercules — the territory which was 
" soon " (as Rendu insists !) to be uninterruptedly 
handed down from Grimaldi to Grimaldi ; " but 
which, //// then^ had been avidly coveted and occupied 
by all parties, but gained only by stratagem and 
force." 

Ambrose, who came after his father, was drowned 
while fishing in 1422 ; his brother John succeeded. 
By this time Genoa had long since revolted again. 
There had been a general massacre of the French in 
1409, when Boucicaut was absent (he was fighting 
in Milan for the Visconti) ; the people had taken 



^ Pemberton says that Genoese historians, who thought to do him 
honour, related of Boucicaut that he hated women. No French 
memoir of him says anything of this. 



122 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

the Marquis de Montferrat as Governor ; Boucicaut, 
hearing the news, had tried to get back to the city, 
had been repulsed, and had found himself obliged to 
cross the Alps and return to France. Then had 
come a spell of anarchy — " Guelfs and Ghibellines 
like wild beasts without their keepers to restrain 
them" ; and finally, in 1421, Genoa, Courtesan of 
Cities, had " given herself" once more to somebody. 
The somebody this time was Philip-Mary Visconti, 
that Duke of Milan who bears the unenviable label 
of having been " almost terrifyingly ugly." He was 
the most powerful prince that had ever reigned over 
Italy, yet he was so nervous of the effect which 
his hideous countenance might have that he could 
scarcely bear to be seen. Sensitive as he was on 
this point, however, he did nothing to ameliorate his 
outward man, for " he was never even passably clean." 
An unhappy, apprehensive person, Philip-Mary 
was afraid of lightning and thunder, he was terrified 
of death, he "distrusted both himself and others." 
But Genoa had made up her mutable mind ! To 
this man she offered herself. He, in his turn, 
accepted her, and sent as Governor the greatest 
soldier of the time, Francesco Carmagnola — orBusone, 
as he was really called, for he had exchanged his sur- 
name for the name of the town where he was born. 

He was the son of a peasant, and had begun 
life as a shepherd ; now he was Governor of Genoa, 
" Count " Carmagnola, and husband of Visconti's 
natural daughter, Bianca. In 1421 that was Car- 




Photo by Giraudon, after the drawing in the Louvre by Ptsanello. 

PHILIP-MARy VISCONTI. 
p. 122] 



A Visconti Viper 123 

magnola's position ; in 1425 we find him in Venice, 
eagerly urging the Senators to sign a treaty or 
alliance with Florence against the Duke of Milan ! 
The change had come about through Visconti's 
jealousy of his one-time protege. The man was 
immensely rich — his soldiers adored him ; he must 
be ruined. But Carmagnola was resolved not 
to be ruined. He made friends 'first with Amadeus 
of Savoy, and revealed to him Visconti's plans ; 
then in 1425 he went to Venice. Meanwhile, at 
Milan, the Visconti Viper had revenged himself by 
confiscating all that property which had first stirred 
envy in his bosom. It brought in a revenue of 
forty thousand florins — enormous in those days. . . 
In 1426 Florence and Venice, as allied powers, 
declared war against Milan ; and from then to 
1428 Carmagnola won victory after victory, until 
at last the Viper sued for peace. He obtained it ; 
but in 143 1 war again broke out, and there came 
the terrible Siege of Cremona. 

John Grimaldi, as admiral, fought for Visconti 
in this desperate battle ; Carmagnola was the 
Venetian general, Trevisani the admiral, and the 
trophy of war was to be the town of Cremona. 
Grimaldi's tactics were masterly. He drew the 
battle close in to the shore, so that the Venetians 
should lose the advantage of their mariners' ex- 
perience — for the Milanese were strongest in armed 
cuirassiers, and these were what, as he had planned 
the contest, should prove of most importance. 



124 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

Trevisani quickly perceived the trick, and sum- 
moned Carmagnola to join him with the cuirassiers 
that he commanded. But Carmagnola had all the 
insolence of the too-successful man ; he was ob- 
stinate and rough-spoken as well ; and when 
Trevisani's panting messengers arrived, he heard 
them with derision. "Tell him he is the victim 
of a delusion. Is he a coward, that he should 
be afraid of a phantom cuirassier ? " The mes- 
sengers went back ; the battle proceeded. Soon 
enough, from the opposite bank of the river, 
Carmagnola perceived that Trevisani had been the 
victim of no delusion. The phantom cuirassiers 
were real cuirassiers ; and they were not fighting 
only with their weapons. They had torches of 
pitch and sulphur ; they had boiling oil and burning 
tow. " The decks were so slippery with blood and 
oil that there was no foothold " ; quicklime also 
was used as a weapon : " the horror was unparal- 
leled." He tried then to go, but it was too late. 
Crushed as they were against the opposite bank, 
the Venetian ships could not escape to bring over 
his men : the Genoese sailors had actually grappled 
their ships to the Venetian vessels ! Trevisani left 
his flagship ; and coming down the river in a 
barque, *' he loudly accused Carmagnola of having 
caused the whole disaster." 

The Venetians were slaughtered ; six thousand 
men were killed — the Siege of Cremona, one of 
the most abominable battles in all history, was 



Trevisani^s Vengeance 125 

over, and Carmagnola was a ruined man. The 
furious Trevisani repeated his accusations at Venice. 
In 1432 the Senate summoned Carmagnola, "to 
confer on affairs of state " ; he went, was warmly 
received, then by some means induced to dismiss 
his suite — was instantly seized, gagged, bound, sent 
to the torture, and beheaded on the Piazza di San 
Marco. . . Trevisani had been quickly avenged 
for that insulting message and that paralysing 
disbelief; and I think that vengeance, if it be 
admitted to our scheme of things at all, was never 
more in its place. 

But John Grimaldi went back to Genoa in 
triumph, and was married " with splendid pomp " 
to Pommeline Fregoso, sister of Thomas Fregoso, 
who, before the rise of Carmagnola, had been Doge, 
and was again to rule there in the same high office 
three years after Carmagnola's death (1435). 



The Grimaldi and Monaco story now, for a time, 
turns into a mere collection of law-papers — very, 
very dreary and perplexed. There was worry with 
the Savoys about the " Turbia boundary." That 
had begun in Ambrose's time, and was recurrent 
thenceforth for three hundred years. John Grimaldi, 
much exercised by the covetous powers around 
him — Genoa, Milan, Savoy, and the Counts of 
Provence, all with an eye on Monaco — thought 
well to put part of his estates under a protectorate. 



126 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

He chose Amadeus of Savoy as suzerain for Roc- 
cabruna and half of Mentone, on condition that the 
investiture was given to him and his children of 
either sex, born or to be born, "a rinfiniy The 
deed was signed in 1448. Much trouble came from 
it in later years through the entirely unfounded 
claim of the Savoys to the absolute right. . . But 
John kept intact the sovereignty of Monaco ; and 
from there led many campaigns against the old-time 
foes, those Catalan pirates who were like the little 
foxes that spoil the grapes for the Lords of Monaco. 
Troublesome though they were, John made some 
profit out of them. He forced them to pay the tax 
of two per cent, on their cargo to which all merchant- 
vessels in the waters round Monaco were subject. 
Rendu regards this tax as an arbitrary and unjusti- 
fiable proceeding ; but Metivier declares that the 
Lord of the Rock might fairly claim his percent- 
age, since he kept armed galleys along the coast 
to defend the Gulf of Liguria against the Barbary 
pirates. One kind of pirate, it seems to me, must 
be very like another — but I do not know much 
about them, and the Grimaldis had for long been 
experts on the subject. John may have been 
justified. 

Among John's best friends were Charles VII. of 
France, now a very powerful monarch, for the 
English had at last been driven from the land ; and 
that delightful prince, Ren6 of Anjou, " painter, 
writer, dramatist, and modern dilettante " — the king 



Partridges, Pinks, and Peacocks 127 

who had " conceived a sort of contempt for all that 
usually flatters the vanity of sovereigns," and who, 
informed, while he was engaged in painting a par- 
tridge, of the loss of Naples, went on painting, 
persuaded that "to be happy, he must forget that 
he was a sovereign." It was this Rene who in- 
troduced white peacocks into France, who pro- 
pagated " the Provencal pink, the roses of Provins, 
and the muscat grape," who loved the sun so 
much that to this day a sunny corner in Provence 
is called " the chimneypiece of King Rene " — and 
his memory has kept the mellow flavour of his life. 
When one reads of a personality like this, one turns 
in weary impatience from those strident glories of 
the fighting-man which so tyrannise historians. The 
spilling of the blood, one murmurs, might well have 
sufficed without the further spilling of the ink — yet 
even while we grumble thus, with the Provengal 
pink between our fingers, the muscat grape between 
our lips, the white peacock a-glimmer somewhere 
on the lawns of the imagination, we too must once 
more take up the task of admiring those admirals 
and generals that the Grimaldis, for century after 
century, would persist in being. 

John, hero of the atrocious Siege of Cremona, 
died in 1454 and left one son, Catalan, (was he called 
after the pirates, one speculates ?), and two daughters, 
of whom the younger, Bartolommea, married Peter 
Fregoso, nephew of the Doge Thomas whose 
sister, Pommeline, had been John's bride in 1431. 



128 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

Bartolommea is the first Grimaldi-born lady who 
arrests the attention of history. She distinguished 
herself in 1464 at the siege of the Castle of 
Genoa by the Duke of Milan. Her husband, 
Peter Fregoso, was by that time dead. Noted from 
his earliest youth for his audacity and violence, 
Peter had nevertheless in 1450 managed to get 
himself elected Doge. Genoa, under him, was what 
she always was — a river of blood. Alfonso of 
Aragon, who loathed him, attacked the city and 
was driven out, but came back and harassed her 
for years and years ; till Peter, resolved that this 
scornful, captivating knight should never be his 
king, once more offered the sovereignty of Genoa 
to France. Charles VII. accepted it, and sent 
John of Calabria, Rene of Anjou's son, to be his 
Governor ; but that arrangement lasted only two 
years. Fregoso then finding himself free of foes — 
for Alfonso of Aragon was dead, and his heir, 
Ferdinand of Naples, had recalled the fleet from 
before Genoa — resolved to throw off the French 
yoke. In 1459 he suffered defeat ; but he soon 
advanced again upon the city. Again he was re- 
pulsed ; but, intrepid in war as in cruelty, Peter 
Fregoso rode through the streets, calling on the 
people to arm against the common foe. The furious 
French pursued and killed him, while from the 
houses poured a rain of stones upon " one of the 
most illustrious citizens and dangerous enemies that 
Genoa has ever had " (1460). 



The Widow Fregoso 129 

He had not long been dead before the Courtesan 
of Cities began to think that she wanted a new 
protector. Paul Fregoso, as ardent and unscru- 
pulous as his brother Peter, had been exiled, but 
now returned and stirred up feeling against the 
French. There were tumults innumerable and 
three or four changes of Doge, before in 1463 Paul 
established himself in the coveted office. He 
became unpopular directly, for he was tyrannical and 
cruel ; the towns of the Riviera all united in defying 
his authority, and joined Francesco Sforza — now, by 
usurpation, Duke of Milan. ^ Sforza sent a big 
army against Genoa (1464). Fregoso held the 
Castelletto, but he soon left it in charge of his 
brother Pandolf and Bartolommea Grimaldi-Fregoso, 
Peter's widow, and sailed himself to act as pirate 
along the Ligurian coast. At the end of forty 
days, Sforza' s general had not yet taken the castle, 
nor seemed likely to take it ; but the " Widow 
Fregoso," (as Sismondi calls her), had for some 
time been treating secretly with the Milanese, and 
the result of her transactions was that she sold 
the castle for 14,000 golden florins to the enemy, 
who entered and took possession, Pandolf Fregoso 
being entirely ignorant of the turn which affairs 
had taken. This is what the official chroniclers 
of the Grimaldi family describe as Bartolommea's 

^ Sforza had married Philip-Mary Visconti's daughter ; and when 
the Visconti died, he contrived to get himself recognised by the 
Milanese as successor to the title, and thus became the stem of a 
new House which reigned for several generations. 



130 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

'' immortalisation " of herself at the Siege of Genoa 
in 1464. 



John Grimaldi's son Catalan had died in 1457, 
leaving only one daughter, Claudine, who now, by 
virtue of her grandfather's will, establishing the 
female succession, was sovereign lady of Monaco. 
The will had, however, also ordained that the 
possible heiress should marry a member of the 
Grimaldi family, so little twelve-year-old Claudine 
was at once beset by two acquisitive cousins. One 
was Lambert, second son of Nicolas Grimaldi of 
Antibes ; the other was James, Baron de Bueil. 
Lambert was the favourite, for John had designated 
him in his will ; but James, regarding the small 
Claudine, put his faith in time — since surely she 
was over-young to marry yet ! Lambert, perceiving 
James's game, stopped it effectually by wedding the 
child a year after her father's death. Thus, in 
Claudine' s right, he was Lord of Monaco " absolutely 
and entirely," together with Roccabruna and the 
half of Mentone, which he held as fiefs under 
the House of Savoy. It was quite a happy union, 
say the chroniclers ; *' she reigned ; he governed." 

Lambert supported Francesco Sforza, and in 
return for his services was made Governor of 
Vintimiglia. Sforza at that time held Genoa as 
" a fief in tenure " from the Crown of France ; 
for Louis XI, when he succeeded Charles VII, 



A *' Mother-in-Law *' 131 

found her too unruly a lady to be worth keeping 
entirely to himself. He therefore ceded his rights 
to Sforza, who soon established himself as Lord 
(1463). All had been tolerably well while Francesco 
was alive; now, in 1466, when his son Galeazzo 
was in power, it was evident that Genoa would 
soon be " off " again. Lambert seized the oppor- 
tunity of Galeazzo's troubles to make himself 
independent in Vintimiglia. He succeeded ; but 
Sforza claimed the Duke of Savoy's aid against 
this revolting Grimaldi. Lambert had been stupid 
enough to offend Amadeus IX, and Amadeus now 
sent Entremont, Governor of Nice, to besiege 
Monaco. Lambert held out for two months, but 
at last, after a brilliant defence, had to accept 
capitulation on August 5, 1466. 

His defeat had been made almost inevitable by two 
circumstances. Rene of Anjou had been unable to 
come to his aid ; and Pommeline Fregoso, Claudine's 
grandmother, had taken up the historic r61e of the 
mother-in-law, and was giving Lambert some very 
bad quarters-of-an-hour. She had ardently desired 
the guardianship of Claudine, and she had not got 
it ; jealous and offended, she then recollected that 
by John's will she had rights over the Castle of 
Mentone. She stirred up feeling there against 
Lambert. '* Woman-wise," says Pemberton, (rather 
foolishly, for surely what Pommeline did was merely 
human-nature wise), *' she chose the untoward 
moment," of the Siege of Monaco to induce 



132 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

the Mentonese to revolt. What Mentone did, 
Roccabruna, faithful satellite, always did too, so 
both towns offered themselves to Savoy. But 
Amadeus IX behaved beautifully. (Perhaps he 
disliked Pommeline !) He caused searching inquiries 
to be made into the reason for this step ; and on 
discovering the truth, refused to have anything to 
do with the two towns. Not only so, but he sent 
Entremont, fresh from his success at Monaco, to 
quell the rebellion. Mentone and Roccabruna, 
much astonished at this rebuff, at once gave in 
and took fresh oaths of allegiance to Lambert. 
Amadeus, honourable but clear-sighted, remembering 
the many Grimaldi defections, claimed from Lambert 
a renewed homage for the towns ; but though he 
thus underlined his distrust of the family, he plainly 
bore Lambert no ill-will, for he afterwards made 
him Captain-General of the naval forces in the 
Western Riviera. 

All these things had filled 1466 with excitement, 
and once they were settled, Lambert was glad to 
devote himself to his little State. Liguria at last 
knew some years of real tranquillity ; and by 1477, 
Lambert found that he had enough money saved 
to buy the five-sixths of Mentone which still 
belonged to his relatives, Honore and Luke. The 
Grimaldi heritage was now whole and entire, except 
for one-twelfth of Mentone, which was in the hands 
of the elder branch — and this also, in 1489, 
Lambert purchased for 5,000 golden florins. Thus 




Anderson, Rome, Photo. 



p. 13a] 



From the bust in the National Museum, Florence. 
CHARLES THE EIGHTH, 
King of France. 



The MiracIe^Chapel at Carnol^s 133 

under him were re-united all the rights which the 
Grimaldis had acquired over Mentone in the time 
of Charles I (1346). 

On the domain in Mentone acquired in 1477, 
Claudine had a small chapel built to the Virgin. 
This quickly became celebrated for miracles — so 
celebrated that Lambert begged Pope Sixtus IV to 
make an inquiry into the matter. The miracles 
were pronounced authentic, and the chapel at 
Carnoles soon became a great place of pilgrimage. 
Lambert built a church and convent. The monks 
were to have a special cult of the Virgin — La 
Madonna del Carnoles} The chapel, Pemberton 
tells us, is now a mere place for lumber and 
rubbish, and the house built against it is let to 
winter visitors to Mentone.^ 

Lambert was Councillor and Chamberlain to 
Charles III of Anjou, the prince who by his will 
left Provence and his pretensions to the crown 
of Naples — that weary, blood-stained gift ! — to 
Louis XI of France. Louis cared little for the 
latter legacy, but it awakened eager and disastrous 
hopes in the romantic brain of his successor, 
Charles VIII — as I shall soon have occasion to 
relate. 

Provence thus returned to the French Crown. 

^ In 1 573, the year after the Massacre of St. Bartholomew, Pope 
Gregory XII granted a plenary indulgence to any one who visited 
for the first time the Church of Carnoles on the Nativity of the 
Virgin. 

^ Peipberton's book was published in 1867, 



134 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

Lambert lost no time in reminding the youthful 
Charles VIII of the many Grimaldi claims on 
Angevin protection — now, as it were, a legacy to 
France. Charles at once acquiesced, and did every- 
thing possible to let it be understood that Grimaldi 
and all belonging to him were protected by the 
French Crown. Everything seemed tranquil now ; 
and Lambert settled down to further well-doing for 
his little State. He enjoyed three years of that ; 
then in 1493 he died, and Ckudine, though 
actually sovereign lady, preferred to invest her 
eldest son, John, with the government. She 
" felt old and infirm," but she was only forty-six, 
so I must suppose either that women aged with 
amazing frankness and rapidity in the Middle Ages, 
or else that marriage at thirteen is the knell of 
youth— a conclusion at which it would not be sur- 
prising to find one's self definitely arrived. She 
lived until 15 14, and as she had felt old and infirm 
at forty-six, I fear that at sixty-seven she must have 
been a very pathetic old lady. 



CHAPTER VI 

Le bon petit roy Charles " and his dream — Lodovico Sforza and 
Beatrice d' Este — Genoa and her ladies — Genoa and her nobles 
— Farewell to Genoa — The Age of Assassinations : Murder of 
Lucien Grimaldi, 



CHAPTER VI 

THE government of John Grimaldi for his 
mother Claudine, was overshadowed by 
Charles VIII's expedition against Naples. Charles 
had succeeded Louis XI, in 1483, when he was 
only thirteen years old. He was the strangest 
of beings — said to be only supposedly "his 
father's son," and timid, awkward, embarrassed all 
through his early youth, for his education had been 
neglected, he could neither read nor write when 
he succeeded to the throne, and the only place he 
knew was the Castle of Amboise, where Louis XI 
had kept him closely confined. The strangest little 
being to look at, too, like a " quaint elfin child," 
very small, very delicate, with "long frail legs 
which could scarcely support an ungainly body, 
oddly made up of a broad chest and high shoulders, 
from which the enormous head barely detached 
itself." His features were as inharmonious as his 
physique ; he had a round little chin, thin lips, and 
a sunken mouth, " which disappeared almost beneath 
a long aquiline nose, descending from a broad 
forehead, and separating amazingly large eyes." 
137 



138 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

France looked somewhat dubiously on her king 
when she first beheld him, but she soon plucked 
up courage and resolved to see only his good points : 
how bright, how gentle were his eyes, how ardent 
and how chivalrous was the heart they eloquently 
spoke for ! " And France was right," says the 
Comte de Segur ; '* that heart raged at ignorance, 
and fought hard to conquer it," and Charles, more- 
over, like many such dispossessed beings, had the 
passion for romance, the dreamy, ardent nature 
which o'erleaps the physical disabiUties, and makes 
for itself a perennial fairyland of triumph and 
success and ladies' eyes admiring, and glories so 
transcendent that in their blaze those eyes may 
well mistake grotesquerie for beauty. The old, 
old tale of Beauty and the Beast — that was, in a 
word, the story which had ravished the imagina- 
tion of le hon 'petit roy Charles. 

And to think of Naples was to think of the 
very home of romance. That legacy from the last 
Angevin ^ to Louis XI — a legacy ignored by the 
crafty monarch — became to Louis XI's son the 
lodestar of life. Historians, intolerant of lodestars, 
uncomprehending of fairy-tales, speak very bitterly 
of Charles VIII's expedition. "Posterity can find 
nothing that serves as an excuse, nothing that 
causes us to forget for one moment the frightful 
harm it did to humanity " : so thunders Sismondi, 
who had little indulgence for kings. The Comte 

* Charles III of Anjou. 



Caustic Chroniclers 139 

de Segur even has a frown for his hero, " He 
was a belated child, a puerile genius " — and worst 
of all, the contemporary chronicler, delightful 
Philippe de Comines, could only marvel at the 
earlier success, and scarcely deplore the later disaster. 
" Everything necessary was lacking. The King, 
who was only trying his wings, as it were — young, 
feeble, self-willed — was little aided by either wise 
councillors or by good commanders, and he had 
no ready money, no tents nor pavilions. . . 
One thing only he had — a gay, brave company of 
young gentlemen. . . Thus we must suppose that 
this expedition was led by God, both going and 
returning — for the wit of the leaders, as I have 
said, would not have taken them far." Sismondi, 
again, sums up. "The fate of Italy in 1494 was 
decided by an equal contest between incapacity and 
unskilfulness. Watching the conduct of the Kings 
of France and Naples, it would have seemed as 
impossible for Charles VIII to conquer Italy as for 
Alfonso II to prevent him from doing so." But 
Charles had powerful allies. He had Florence, who 
drove out the Medici and opened her gates to him ; 
he had the Pope, Alexander VI ; he had Lodovico 
Sforza, Duke of Milan, that " most complete among 
the princely figures of the Italian Renaissance." 
Lodovico Sforza, called The Moor,^ was the 



^ Not because of his dark skin and long black hair. He had 
been christened Lodovico Mauro ; hence he adopted, punningly, 
both the Mpoj's head and the mulberry-leaf as his badge. 



I40 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

patron of Leonardo da Vinci, who painted his 
Last Supper at the Duke's request. Leonardo lived 
for sixteen years at the Court of Milan, and did 
his best work there. That Court was illumined 
by the enchanting personality of Beatrice d'Este, 
Lodovico's child-wife, " la piu zentil donna d'ltalia^^ 
who yet has been handed down to history as the 
Lady Macbeth of Lombardy ! " I had known her 
too long," says Mary Robinson, in her essay on 
The Ladies of Milan, " as a haughty and ambitious 
woman, accepting with a smile the crimes that placed 
the crown of Milan on her head. . . And yet I 
knew she had been dearly worshipped in her lifetime, 
and long lamented in her tomb." 

And then, the exquisite essayist tells us, she 
visited the Certosa of Pavia with its rose-red towers, 
and " straight before me stood the tomb of the 
Duchess Beatrice. . . To think she is dead, and 
to think she was a woman ! Impossible. She 
is a lively child. . . Her tumbled curls hang 
loosely round her shoulders, and stand up in a 
little frizz above the rounded childish forehead. 
As she lies there, a look of infantile candour is 
diffused over the soft, adorable, irregular features. 
She has straight, brief eyebrows, like a little girl, 
but her closed eyelids are rounded like the petals 
of a thick white flower, and richly fringed with 
lashes. The little nose is of no particular shape 
... it is the prettiest nose at Court. . . The 
cheeks are round apple-cheeks . . . and round is 




Photo by Anderson, Rome, after the painting by Leonardo da Vinci at Milan. 
BEATRICE D' ESTE. 



'*La Piu Zentil Donna ^* 141 

the neat bewitching chin. But her chief beauty is 
her mouth — a mouth with the soft-closed lips of 
a dear child pretending to be asleep, yet smiling 
as if to say, * Soon I shall jump up and throw my 
arms round your neck, and you will be so sur- 
prised ! ' . . . This then is the famous Beatrice ! 
I looked and looked ; at last I understood not only 
her, but the love of Lodovico." . . . 

She died, with barely a moment's warning, at 
twenty-one ; " and 'tis reported," wrote Marino 
Sanuto on January 9, 1496, in his Diary, "that the 
Duke cannot suffer the sorrow of this loss, for the 
great love he bore to his wife ; and he saith he hath 
no heart for his children nor for his State, nor for 
aught under the sun ; so that almost is he weary 
of his life. And, out of sadness, he keepeth his 
chamber which is hung all in black, and there for 
a fortnight he hath shut himself in. And 'tis said 
that, in the self-same night the Duchess died, the 
walls of her garden fell crashing to the ground, 
and yet was there neither tempest, wind, nor earth- 
quake ; which thing was held by many for a sign 
of very evil omen." 



Sforza stood in a strangely ambiguous relation 
to the Court of France. He was the ally of Charles 
VIII — it was he, indeed, who called the French 
into Italy ; and for Charles VIII was fighting also 
that brilliant, brave, and beautiful young Louis, 



142 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

Duke of Orleans, First Prince of the Blood, (after- 
wards to be Louis XII of France), who, as Sforza 
knew, considered himself rightful heir to the 
Duchy of Milan ! His claim was through his 
grandmother, Valentine Visconti — the Sforzas, as 
I have related, having gained Milan by the usur- 
pation of Francesco Sforza. . . But Louis of 
Orleans, though secretly hostile to Charles's chief 
ally, joined in the Naples campaign and won 
the decisive victory of Rapallo, where he destroyed 
the army of Ferdinand of Naples. Ferdinand fled, 
leaving the contest for Naples to his atrocious 
son, Alfonso, of whom Comines wrote : " Nul 
homme na este plus cruel que luiy ne plus mauvaiSy 
ne plus vicieuXy ne plus infect^ ne 'plus gourmand que 
luir 

Charles VIII entered Naples in triumph, but 
Naples had always been easier to win than to keep, 
and in a few months she had turned against the 
French. Not only so, but Lodovico Sforza, appre- 
hensive of Charles's further triumphs, had become 
definitely hostile to le bon petit roy. He joined 
with the Pope, the Emperor Maximilian, the King 
of Spain, and Venice against the King of France. 
Charles won a brilliant victory, but his star was 
down ; he failed to take advantage of his success, 
and quickly retired to France (1495). He died 
three years afterwards, very suddenly, of apoplexy 
in a gallery at Amboise, whence he was looking on 
at a game of bowls. *' He was incapable, pre- 



The ToO'Strong Little Place 143 

sumptuous, and ignorant " (so Larousse gives judg- 
ment) ; " but his sweetness and generosity of 
character made him universally beloved." The 
disdainful Sismondi dismisses him in a sentence : 
" Fortune loaded Charles with glory that he was 
incapable of carrying." One word, perhaps, will 
better sum him up : Charles VIII was a dreamer 
— the thing above all others that a king may not 
permit himself to be. 



John Grimaldi fought for him in the Naples 
campaign, and was with him in the triumphal 
entry. Charles prized him, as for long the Kings 
of France had been accustomed to prize Grimaldis — 
there are the usual flattering letters, appointments, 
privileges ; and when the Duke of Orleans suc- 
ceeded his nephew these were continued and con- 
firmed, until in 1508 Louis XII began to realise 
too clearly the value of that " strong little place," 
and then there ensued various and lasting dissen- 
sions with France. But by that time John was 
dead, and I have still a little more to tell of him 
before I come to his successor, Lucien. 

Louis XII succeeded his nephew Charles VIII 
in 1498, and in 1499 began his campaign against 
Lodovico Sforza for the Duchy of Milan. He began, 
indeed, to assert his claim from the very moment 
of his accession, by refusing to Lodovico the title 
of Duke and addressing him merely as Messer 



144 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

Lodovico, while he styled himself King of France 
and Duke of Milan. When, in 1499, Lodovico 
realised that Louis was gaining advantages which 
must prove decisive, he determined to seek safety 
in flight, and, " mounted on a black horse, in the 
long black mantle which he always wore since his 
wife's death," he left the city. After a stately 
farewell to his nobles and a long visit to the church 
where Beatrice was buried,^ he crossed the frontier 
and was safe on Tyrolese soil. Louis XII had 
taken only three weeks to conquer the Duchy of 
Milan ! On Sunday, October 6, 1499, he made 
his triumphal entry. . . The submission of Milan 
brought that of Genoa in its train ; for the light- 
o'-love lost no time in once more '' making up " 
to France. In 1502 Louis paid her a state visit. 
At the moment of his approach, the great bell 
of the city rang out : this was the signal for all the 
nobles and leading citizens to go forth and meet 
him. Among these was John Grimaldi, and with 
him twenty-five gentlemen, all dressed the same — 
" that is to say, in long robes of grey damask." 
These twenty-six were .very soberly attired by 
comparison with the rest of the pageant, which 
included " all the ladies, young ladies, and beautiful 
girls," (such are the invidious distinctions drawn by 
one Jean d' Anton in his History of Louis XII), and 
was assembled in the Piazza San Lorenzo. They were 
all, " or nearly all," dressed in white drap de sole or fine 

' Santa Maria delle Grazie. 



A Bewildered Mere Man 145 

white linen, " and their garments were different from 
all others." For the dresses reached only " half-way 
down the legs or thereabouts, girt under the armpits 
and at the back " ; and on the back, " elles avaient 
un feustre que tout le dos leur engrossissaity On 
their heads they had a little circlet of padded linen, 
and their fair hair was " twisted round it in the manner 
of a diadem." Their jewels were dazzling ; " all 
about their uncovered foreheads they had much 
fine gold . . . the fingers of their white hands were 
full of fine diamonds, and garnished with rubies, 
sapphires, and emeralds. . . And they had white 
or red stockings, well drawn up, and shoes of the 
same colour. . . What more shall I say ? " (pro- 
ceeds the delightful Jean). " They are of medium 
stature, rondelettes, their faces tolerably plump, very 
fresh and white ; in bearing, a little haughty and 
fierettes^ in manner kind, in accost gracious, in love 
ardent, in speech fecund, and in temper loyal ; 
and withal they know their lesson so well that 
no one can teach them anything." The gentle- 
men who companioned these bewildering ladies 
wore long robes of crimson velvet, " others were 
in black velvet, and others in damask and camlet." 
'Twas a great day, and Louis XII was so pleased 
with his Genoa that he (among other benefactions) 
received John Grimaldi most graciously, and made 
him on the spot Governor of Vintimiglia — by this 
time, almost an hereditary Grimaldi post. 

John was now at peace with everyone, and was 

10 



146 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

looking forward to a happy future. When Claudine 
should die, he would be actually Lord of Monaco ; 
in the meantime, he could feel that he was ruling 
wisely for her. . . But suddenly and mysteriously, 
in 1505, he died : so suddenly and so mysteriously 
that to this day historians debate the manner of 
his death. Giojffredo, always grim and always 
a candid critic of the Grimaldis, asserts positively 
that he was murdered by his younger brother 
Lucien. Metivier prefers to assume that Lucien 
was innocent, since the crime was never proved 
against him ; but rumour was loud and definite, 
the people were furious, and Lucien, guilty or not, 
fled to the protection of the Duke of Savoy, who 
was suzerain of Mentone and Roccabruna. The 
Duke behaved oddly. He granted Lucien an 
" indult " forbidding all investigation into the 
matter ! Claudine — by this time assuredly very 
" old and infirm," having run, as we saw just 
now, so much more than half-way to meet senility 
— gave him the same mandate to govern for her 
that she had given John ; but, as even M6tivier 
admits, this proves nothing, for a man who could 
kill his brother would certainly not hesitate at 
forcing his mother's hand in his own favour. . . 
And thus was Lucien Grimaldi installed as ruler 
of our Rock. 

He came in, without delay, for a fresh houtade 
from Miladi Genoa. She had for some time been 
sulking. Her nobles, encouraged by the French 



Mushrooms. 147 

Governor, Philippe de Ravenstein — an aristocrat of 
the old feudal type — had assumed an insulting 
and despotic manner towards the people. It 
became the fashion to wear a dagger with osten- 
tatious visibility, and upon the dagger were inscribed 
the words Castiga villano — " Punishment for villeins." 
Such a motto could have but one effect : the 
veriest trifle was all that the people awaited before 
blazing into open mutiny. It arrived in the ex- 
traordinary shape of a basket of mushrooms. A 
man named Guillon was one day bargaining in 
the market for these, and had completed his pur- 
chase when a member of the great Doria family, 
coming up, put his hand on the basket and 
declared that he meant to have it. Guillon 
clutched his side tightly. " First come, first 
served," he protested, but Doria, with his other 
hand, hit him in the face so roughly that the blood 
poured down, and told him he might carry that 
away instead of the mushrooms. At the same 
moment, out flashed the dagger with the detested 
motto, but before it could reach the townsman he 
had gathered a crowd around him by his indignant 
cries. There were soon ten thousand infuriated 
*' villeins " in the streets. 

The mob won in the end. They elected eight 
Tribunes, and, uplifted by their success, revolted 
against the King of France himself. Louis, ap- 
prehensive of losing the place altogether, treated 
them leniently ; but their sedition persisted. " The 



148 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

city became a mere den of robbers and rascals ; 
theft and pillage went unpunished in the turmoil," 
says Brequigny ; and finally the Tribunes ordered 
the troops to go and seize Monaco, whither the 
nobles (who had of course been exiled) had escaped. 
The soldiers left for Monaco on September 24, 
1 506, under the command of one Tarlatino. Poor 
Tarlatino soon found himself with a bigger army 
than he had counted on ; for the mutineers, burning 
with rage against the nobles, all flew to " aid " the 
troops at Monaco ! Artisans, shopkeepers, a mot- 
ley crew, who "almost caused their comrades to 
abandon the siege " — for from the first, Monaco had 
resisted stoutly. But nothing would daunt the 
rebels. " Q.uelque chose quon leur sceust remontrer, 
ne se voulaient departir de leur folk entreprise" 
They had landed at Les Spelugues ; ^ it was an 
admirable position. Lucien claimed help from the 
Duke of Savoy and the King of France, for the 
French flag had been pulled down in Genoa by this 
time, and a Doge elected from among the people 
— one Paul de Novi, a dyer, and (according to 
Brequigny) " a natural genius." 

The Duke of Savoy proved a lukewarm friend. 
He sent only a itsv troops, who took possession of 
La Turbia, which commands Monaco from the land- 
ward side. This was on the pretext of preventing 
the Genoese from establishing their artillery at that 
point ; but from La Turbia, Savoy could menace 

• The plateau on which now stands the famous Casino 



Sainte Devote Appears 149 

Monaco as powerfully as he could protect her — and 
Lucien, already offended by the exiguous friendship 
of his suzerain, felt suspicion mingled with resent- 
ment. Savoy's conduct on this occasion cost his 
House the Grimaldi allegiance, for Claudine, when 
she made her will in 15 10, forbade Lucien and 
his successors to do any homage to Savoy ; and 
further, she deprived of their hereditary rights any 
of her posterity who should disobey her in this 
matter. Homage to the Savoys was not paid again 
by the Grimaldis until 17 13 • . . Claudine, one 
sees, was not yet without her spark of the divine fire, 
" old and infirm " though she had been for so many 
superfluous years. 

The rebels were muddling on, losing their energy 
for want of any marked success, and the unhappy 
Tarlatino was struggling with his volunteers, when 
at last, after nearly five months, Louis XII resolved 
to lead personally an expedition against Genoa. He 
arrived at Monaco with three thousand infantry — 
and no sooner did he arrive than the Genoese gave 
up the contest. The Duke of Savoy then sent 
reinforcements to La Turbia, and on March 22, 
1507, the Siege of Monaco ended. The Monegas- 
cans attributed the happy issue to their adored Sainte 
Devote, quite as much as to French prestige. She 
had appeared, they said, in a cloud to the besiegers, 
and this had so terrified them that they had lost all 
heart for fighting. 

Lucien Grimaldi then joined the French army. 



150 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

and was with Louis XII on that King's famous 
triumphal entry into Genoa, " with a naked sword in 
his hand." Louis, thus symbolic, was received by a 
weeping and repentant populace ; troops of white- 
gowned virgins met him, bearing olive-branches — 
and he " seemed touched " ; nevertheless he caused 
gallows to be erected all over the city. Several 
citizens were hanged on these — among them Paul 
de Novi, the Dyer-Doge. Louis took back all the 
privileges that had been granted to the people, and 
they, still gazing at that naked sword, submitted 
like lambs. Genoa was bearing out the well-worn 
proverb of the woman and the walnut-tree, as indeed 
she had made it her business to bear out all the well- 
worn proverbs about women. Louis inflicted every 
humiliation upon her : no trace of independence was 
left — even her money was struck with the French 
King's image and superscription. But Genoa escaped 
lightly by comparison with Lodovico Sforza, 
who was brought to Lyons in the broad light of 
day, amid a jeering crowd, and then imprisoned 
for ten years in a sort of iron cage, refused all 
books (he had pleaded for a volume of Dante), all 
writing materials — and " left to die in utter despair, 
undistracted by any human solace." 

We must now, with amused regret, take leave of 
Miladi Genoa. Not ours to know for how long the 
walnut-tree method proved salutary. Her history 
and that of Monaco have henceforward nothing in 
common. They had been intimately connected for 




p. 150] 



LOUIS THE TWELFTH, 
King of France. 



The Age of Assassinations 151 

more than three centuries ; for the future, " the 
Grimaldi town will live a more personal life, but not a 
less agitated one — and that for many years to come." 



This period of the Grimaldi story may be called 
the Age of Assassinations. Lucien had killed his 
brother John in 1505 ; in 1508, the Bueil branch 
lost its chief by the same violent end. George 
Grimaldi, Baron de Bueil, had been conspiring with 
Louis XII against his suzerain, Charles III of Savoy. 
Louis wanted Charles to join the infamous League 
of Cambrai, which had for its aim the destruction 
of Venice, and Charles indignantly refused. The 
French King, much annoyed, stirred up feeling 
against him in the Comt6 of Nice, and succeeded in 
corrupting George Grimaldi.^ But the conspiracy 
was discovered, and George was summoned to the 
Court of Savoy to give an account of his behaviour. 
Instead of obeying, he shut himself up in the Castle 
of Bueil, and sent his brother John to Provence to 
gather troops. In the meantime, however, Louis 
XII had succeeded in drawing Savoy into the 
League, so the Seneschal of Provence had to inform 
the Grimaldi brothers that he could aid them in no 
wise. George, shut up in Bueil, was hopelessly 

^ Durante, in his Histoire de Nice, says that Augustin Grimaldi, then 
Bishop of Grasse, (which lay in the disaffected region), was active 
in this plot. As we shall see, Augustin had his reasons for dis- 
trusting Louis XII, and I think that this statement of Durante may 
be strongly doubted. 



152 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

compromised ; but the castle was capable of a stout 
resistance — luck might yet turn in his favour, and 
George kept a good heart. Alas ! he had treated 
one Spirito Tortoris, his valet, with such rigour 
during the nervous days of the first bad news that 
Spirito had "conceived against him such hatred 
and such a thirst for vengeance that, driven by his 
blind rage, he one day, while shaving his master, cut 
his throat with the razor without George being able 
to utter a word — and so he died.^ " Bouche (quoted 
by Durante) declares that some historians say this 
servant was bought by the emissaries of the 
Governor of Nice, in order to spare the expense of 
a siege at Bueil. " It must be calumny," pleads 
Durante ; " for how can we believe that Duke 
Charles, called The Good, should have permitted 
such barbarity, seeing that George could not escape the 
hand of justice " ! He further delights us by adding 
that "this death put an end to all proceedings 
against George." 

The ball of murder, set a-roUing by Lucien, was 
soon to be given further impetus by the goddess of 
poetic justice herself; but that was not till 1523, 
and in the meantime there were unexpected com- 
pHcations. A breach with France was imminent. 
In 1508 — the year after Louis XII's triumphal entry 
into Genoa — Lucien Grimaldi's anxieties on this 
score had begun. He went to Milan on a visit to 
Court, and was received with overwhelming gracious- 
' Gioffredo, Storia dei Alpi Marittitni. 



Sinister Flatteries 153 

ness. The King of France abounded in acknowledg- 
ments of the Grimaldi services in general, and 
Lucien's in particular. That was pleasant enough, 
but what was ominous was the extraordinary im- 
portance which he seemed to attach to the position of 
Monaco. Of Monaco's position, Monaco's value, 
he could not, it seemed, stop talking ; and always, 
after a rhapsody in this sort, he would break off to 
assure its Lord of his continued friendship. Lucien 
felt hot and cold — for with what kind of man was 
he talking .'' With a man who was known to have 
broken every treaty he had ever made, to have 
betrayed every ally he had ever had ; with the man 
who had " invented," that very year, the odious 
League of Cambrai, which aimed at destroying 
his loyal friends the Venetians. . . And what, 
moreover, of Ferdinand of Naples, loyal too, and 
basely betrayed to utter ruin ; of Lodovico Sforza, 
mouldering in his iron cage at Loches, cut off from 
every human solace .? . . . Lucien bowed low to the 
royal flatterer, and hastened away to write an 
urgent warning to his brother Augustin, who had 
distinguished himself by his prudence and insight 
during the recent siege. 

Augustin was in holy orders. He was a famed 
theologian, an able diplomatist, very energetic, clear- 
sighted, and resolute — a most notable member of 
the family. He hurried to Monaco, and arrived 
only just in time to close the gates against the 
French troops ! They were of course to have 



154 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

been introduced as " protectors," sent " to shelter 
the Monegascans from the attacks of enemies." 
Augustin shivered the sham to atoms : the philan- 
thropic troops were refused admittance. The 
King, on hearing this, again summoned Lucien 
(who was still in Milan) to his presence. The 
matter was urged as pressing ; troops at Monaco 
meant merely that French authority along the 
Riviera could be more efficiently maintained. Lucien 
saw that clearly enough, in every implication that it 
might carry — -and unwaveringly supported Augustin's 
action. Augustin was, in fact, at that moment 
preparing for a siege. But Louis had no mind for 
the appeal to arms. An easier way suggested itself. 
Lucien was arrested and imprisoned in the Castle 
of Roquette. A pretext for such treachery was 
needed, and the King found it in the " ancient and 
fish-like tale " of that two-per-cent. tax on the 
cargoes of vessels passing through the harbour. 
Lucien at once offered to submit his case to the 
Chancellor of France, and abide by his decision. 

This was not at all what Louis desired. The 
matter was dropped, but Grimaldi remained at 
La Roquette for fifteen months ; then, worn out 
physically and mentally by the confinement, he 
ceded the cherished point, and signed a paper 
authorising France to keep a garrison in Monaco. 
He was at once released, and allowed to go 
home ; but in a month or two the King of France 
discovered that he could not do without the Lord 



"Check to the King** 155 

of Monaco, and Lucien was summoned to Paris, 
where the Court then was. " I wish to receive 
at my Court one for whom I entertain so sincere a 
regard." Lucien read, and pondered. Go he must 
— but he could make a declaration before he went ; 
and he made one, on August 14, 15 10, to the 
effect that anything he might sign after that date 
in favour of the King of France was null and 
void if it affected in any way the independence of 
Monaco. Louis had either heard of this pre- 
caution, or else his conscience had pricked him, 
for in February 151 1 he declared by letters dated 
at Blois that Lucien Grimaldi " had never recog- 
nised any master but God," made him offers of 
money, and — confirmed the famous two-per-cent. 
tax on vessels passing through the harbour ! . . . 
Thus for the hour was the breach arrested, but the 
seeds of mistrust had taken root. Lucien was to 
remain faithful, but Augustin was to remember — 
and to realise for himself how little reliance could 
now be placed upon Gallic friendship. 



In 1 510, while Lucien was still a prisoner at 
La Roquette, his mother Claudine had made her 
will. She left him heir to her States, provided 
that he obeyed her wishes with regard to the Savoy 
homage ; if he died before his sons were of age to 
reign, her next son (Augustin) was to succeed as 
heir, not merely as Regent. She begged Augustin, 



156 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

however, to restore the inheritance to Lucien's sons, 
if there were any. Failing these, the heritage was 
to pass to her daughter Francesca, Lady of Dolce- 
acqua, and her sons. Francesca had married a Doria, 
of the House which had for so long been hostile 
to the Grimaldis. This clause, called by historians 
" the fatal Dolceacqua clause," had vital conse- 
quences for Lucien.^ 

Francesca of Dolceacqua died in 1523, having 
made her brothers Lucien and Augustin executors 
of a will whereby she declared her children to be 
her heirs. Some delay occurred in the payment 
of her son Bartolommeo's portion, and, "with an 
evil disposition," he made this a grievance against 
his uncle Lucien. The ill-will increased, and 
Bartolommeo soon remembered another testament 
— Claudine's — with its fatal Dolceacqua clause, which 
made Francesca and her sons heirs to the Grimaldi 
States, should Lucien die childless. Bartolommeo 
remembered, too, that he was of the Doria, those 
ancient, deadly foes of the Grimaldi House ; and 
further, amid his sinister broo dings, bethought him 
of his famous cousin Andrea, Lord of Oneglia, who 
was already known as a brilliant soldier, though his 
undying historical fame was won in later years on 
the sea. . . Bartolommeo felt sure that Andrea, 
like himself, would feel the call of the Doria blood 
and be ready to do a Grimaldi to death ; and he 

^ Claudine died in 1514, Four years later, Lucien married Anne 
de Pontevez. 



A Depressing Dinner 157 

does not seem to have been mistaken. He began 
by gaining to his side some subjects of Andrea 
Doria, whom he sent to Monaco, begging his uncle 
to let them stay there, since dissensions in their 
own country made it impossible for them to live 
at home just then. The unsuspecting Lucien con- 
sented. Bartolommeo next announced a visit from 
himself. He was going to Lyons to meet the 
King of France : an expedition to Milan was 
impending, and he hoped for an appointment. He 
soon arrived, and showed his uncle a letter from 
Andrea Doria, which begged him (Bartolommeo) 
to hasten to France, "/or // was time to execute the 
project of which he knew.''' 

These ambiguous words, and the fact that Andrea's 
galleys entered Monaco soon after the murder was 
accomplished, leave little doubt of his complicity, 
though he does not directly appear in the affair. 
Bartolommeo paid his visit, returned to Dolceacqua 
"to make preparations," and on August 22, 1523, 
requested his uncle to send a brig to Vintimiglia to 
bring him back to Monaco with his suite. On his 
landing, Lucien asked the nephew to go with him 
to mass, but Bartolommeo declined, saying that he 
had already heard it. After mass, the Palace-party 
sat down to table. The place of honour was given 
to Doria. He could eat nothing ; his face was 
deathly, his agitation paralysing. Lucien pressed 
him to eat ; then, finding it vain, bethought him 
of fetching one of the children to rouse the guest 



15^ The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

from his depression. The baby was placed in 
Bartolommeo's arms, but he trembled so violently 
that he could not hold it, and it was hastily taken 
from him. 

At last the dismal meal ended. Bartolommeo 
then asked for Lucien's advice about the journey, 
and they went together to a cabinet at the end 
of the gallery, which was a favourite working- 
room. Just as they were deep in arrangements, 
the Major-domo came to inform his master that 
four galleys were making for Monaco along the 
coast. " They are my cousin Andrea's ships," said 
Doria, and asked his uncle's permission to send a 
letter to the commander. Lucien at once accorded 
it, and the major-domo was desired to take an 
armed boat and himself deliver the paper. Thus 
Bartolommeo contrived to get rid of twelve or 
fourteen men from the palace, for the boat re- 
quired that number to man it. He then dismissed 
all the attendants from the gallery, except one black 
slave, who would never leave his master. Lucien 
was writing at his table, Doria was standing over 
him, when there entered a man from San Remo, 
called Barraban. Immediately after his appearance, 
Lucien's anguished cry rang out : " 1'raditorey 
traditore I " The black slave heard, and opened 
the door of the cabinet, but was afraid to go in — 
for he saw his master on the ground and the guest 
of that day's banquet bent over him, "driving a 
dagger into his throat." While the slave still 



Murder i59 

trembled at the door, the rest of Bartolommeo's 
men rushed in and stood around him. He left 
his victim, and went out with his dagger in his 
hand, crying exultantly, " Killed, killed ! " His 
people took up the words, and soon Monaco was 
ringing with the triumphant shout. 

The murderer's party now took possession of 
the palace, driving out the attendants and seizing 
all the halberds and armour from the guard-room. 
One terrace, however — the principal one — they 
failed to capture. There some of the servants had 
collected, and were answering the shout of 
" Killed ! " by piercing cries of " To arms ! to 
arms ! " Soon the inhabitants of the town rushed 
in an armed crowd to the palace. Doria's people 
closed the gates and signalled to Andrea's galleys ; 
but though agreed upon and watched for, the signal 
was not seen, and the Monegascans forced their 
way into the palace and attacked the assassins. 
Then Doria made an appeal to the crowd. " What 
he had done was not for himself : it was for 
Marie de Villeneuve, the rightful sovereign.^ Four 
hundred soldiers would be here in a few hours to 
hold the place in her name ; and Monaco would 
find her the pearl of ladies." . . . But the people 
listened with only half an ear. Was their lord 
then actually dead } They could not believe it. 

* She was the daughter of John, and was married to Renaud de 
Villeneuve. She had no valid claim. Even if women were to 
inherit, Claudine was still alive at John's death ; Lucien was there- 
fore indubitably the rightful heir. 



i6o The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

Doria had the poor body brought halfway down 
the staircase, so that they might see for themselves. 
They saw, and their souls revolted. They howled 
down Doria, and attempted to seize him ; but he 
had placed himself in an almost inaccessible part of 
the palace, every one of his accomplices was armed, 
and the town was full of his agents. He, on the 
other hand, was anxious enough, for his troops 
were not arriving. . . It ended in a compromise. 
Doria undertook to go away, if the people would 
answer for his life and for the lives of his adherents. 
They promised ; and Bartolommeo left on one of 
Andrea's galleys — furious and despairing, for there 
was murder on his soul, vengeance on his path, and 
it had been all in vain : he had nothing whatever 
to compensate him for the entire destruction of his 
peace of mind. 



His accomplice, Barraban, died in the same year, 
in very extraordinary circumstances. (My authority 
is a correspondent of one Antonio Longo, who was 
Augustin Grimaldi's agent.) This Barraban was at 
Rouen with some companions, " who perhaps were 
like himself" ; and one night awoke from sleep, 
screaming terribly and saying, " Alarm, alarm ! I 
am dead." His friends hurried to his room, and 
found him moaning, " I am dead. I am wounded 
to death. The Lords of Monaco and Dolceacqua 
came to strike me, and the Lord of Dolceacqua 




p. i6o] 



FRANCIS THE FIRST, 
King of France. 



**l Myself am Heaven and HelP' i6i 

stabbed me mortally, saying, * Traitor, by your 
advice I killed my uncle here present.' " The friends 
undressed him, and found no wounds. It was 
plainly a haunted dream. But he persisted. "I 
tell you the Lord of Dolceacqua wounded me in 
the heart, here, and I can live no longer. Give 
me something to eat, I pray, for I am feeling very 
faint." They brought him food, " and he con- 
tinued to eat for twenty hours " ; saying, in 
recognition of his companions' amazement, " that 
his stomach was on fire, and that he felt sinking 
more and more." " I am going to speak with 
Pilate," he groaned ; and soon after the twenty 
hours, he died. " Thus perished Barraban : he 
died the death of a sinner, so that one might say 
of him, * Whither shall I go from thy spirit, or 
whither shall I flee from thy presence ? ' " 

The Lord of Dolceacqua was by that time safe 
under the protection of Francis I, King of France ; 
but upon this circumstance so great a change in 
the fortunes of Monaco and the Grimaldis depended 
that it may best be treated in a new chapter. 



U 



CHAPTER VII 

Augustin Grimaldi's vengeance — Louis XII and the '■'^ Doubles 
Eirennes" — Louise of Savoy and her Astrologer — Francis I 
of France and the Emperor Charles V— Augustin's rupture 
with France — The murder of Lucien Grimaldi avenged at last. 



CHAPTER VII 

WHEN Bartolommeo Doria left Monaco on his 
cousin Andrea's galley, he went first to La 
Turbia, and there was heard to say that he was 
sorry he had not served Madame de Monaco and 
her boys in the same way as he had served her 
husband. Anne de Pontevez had given Lucien 
two sons. The elder was named Francesco, and 
on his father's death was recognised as heir, but he 
died soon afterwards, leaving a younger brother, 
Honore, heir-presumptive to the estates and title — 
for in accordance with Claudine's will, the uncle, 
Augustin, primarily succeeded. He was, as we 
have seen, a notable man ; and he now adapted him- 
self to his new station in life with a flexibility which 
attested his genius. It was a very different one 
from that of Bishop of Grasse and Abbot of L6rins, 
which had hitherto been his — and the more so, 
because the first business which presented itself was 
one of revenge. But Augustin had the " meridian 
blood " of the fighting Grimaldis, and the long 
hereditary hatred for the Dorias was in it. He 
arrived at Monaco in the hour of Lucien's death, 
165 



1 66 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

and sent at once to La Turbia to avenge the 
murder. 

La Turbia, however, was partly Savoy territory, 
and the Savoys were very tenacious of their juris- 
diction in the disputed region. Doria's person was 
safe so long as he remained there ; nevertheless he 
felt the need of justifying himself in some way, and 
wrote a letter for the purpose. " It was in self- 
defence that I stabbed my uncle." That was the 
plea. Lucien had insulted him — which would sur- 
prise no one who was familiar with the Lord of 
Monaco's " naturally choleric disposition " ; and the 
reason for the insult had been that chivalrous 
Bartolommeo had declared that the Grimaldi estates 
ought to belong to Cousin Marie de Villeneuve. 
Cousin Marie, on hearing of this tribute, behaved 
badly. She wrote at once to Augustin, repudiating 
any connection with the champion of her rights. 
" He fills me with horror," she added, and, in 
conclusion, denied on her part any shadow of a 
claim to the estates. . . Augustin was resolved 
to pursue unrelentingly the murderer of his brother, 
and to aid himself in this, he appealed to the " two 
great sovereigns who at that time divided continental 
Europe between them" — namely, Francis I of France 
and Charles V, Emperor of Germany. 



Louis XII had died in 1515. The last part of 
his reign was a perplexing period. " He was still," 



A New Year's Gift 167 

to quote Capefigue's quaint phrasing, " audibly in 
tears " for his beloved second wife, Anne of Brittany, 
(the widow of his nephew, Charles VIII), who had 
died in 1514 ; and yet he was the victim of a senile 
passion for the licentious girl of eighteen, Mary 
Tudor, sister of Henry VIII of England, whom 
he had married soon after Anne's death. She was 
beautiful, selfish, frivolous, and the dissipation into 
which she dragged him broke his health so quickly 
that on New Year's Day, 151 5, three months after 
the marriage, he died, saying to her with his last 
breath, " Mignonne, I give you my death as your 
etrennesy " She accepted the melancholy gift," 
says Larousse, " and before her mourning was over, 
married him who had always been her lover, namely, 
Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk." ^ 

Mary Tudor was not the only woman to whom 
Louis' death was a welcome New Year's gift. 
Many years before, an astrologer had drawn a horo- 
scope for the boy-baby of a brilliant young princess — 
the Princess Louise of Savoy, Countess of An- 
gouleme. She was the daughter of Philip, Duke of 
Savoy, and of Marguerite de Bourbon. Her husband 
was Charles, Count of Angouleme ; she had been 
betrothed to him when she was only two years old, 
and he, twenty-two ; they had been married in 
1 49 1, when Louise was fifteen. A daughter — the 
famous Marguerite de Valois — was born in 1492, a 

* Mary Tudor and Suffolk had a daughter who became the 
mother of the unhappy Lady Jane Grey. 



1 68 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

son, Francis, in 1494, and in 1496, Charles of 
Angouleme died — poor, heavy Charles, whom his 
ambitious young wife had found so dull ! But she 
had sought consolation in her son — the incomparable 
baby of whom that astrologer had prophesied that he 
should one day be King of France. Louise had 
listened avidly ; and incredible though such a 
fortune might well have seemed, she had not 
thought it incredible. Was anything too good to 
happen to that son of hers ? Yet the astrologer 
might fairly have boasted when his forecasting came 
true — for it had been a very bold one. Nevertheless 
things quickly began to happen in its sense. Charles 
VII I's son died at three — and Louise of Savoy felt 
her heart beat ; in 1498 Charles himself died, and 
left no living child — and now her heart almost 
stopped for a moment. But soon it was beating fast 
again — for rage this time. Louis XII married Anne 
of Brittany, Charles VIII's widow, within eight 
months of Charles's death ! She was only twenty- 
two, she had had children, she would probably have 
more. Louise of Savoy could have killed her. . . 
And soon the dreaded child arrived — but behold, it 
was a daughter. Instantly Louise's boy was married 
in imagination to the baby Claude, a plain, sickly, 
delicate child, but heiress of Brittany and no rival 
for the crown, since the Salic Law prevailed in 
France. All was well ! 

But she had forgotten to reckon with an im- 
portant factor — the baby-princess's mother. Anne 




From an engraving after a picture in the collection of the Chateau de Beauregard. 

LOUISE OF SAVOY, 

Duchesse d'Angouleme. 
p. l68] 



That Astrologer! 169 

of Brittany, too, had her ideas. She dreamed of 
Claude's marriage with the son of Philip of Austria 
and Joanna of Spain/ converging-point and heir as 
he was of four great Royal lines. In 1504, Anne 
did arrange the betrothal, but it never got any 
further. Louis XII for once opposed his beloved 
second wife. He desired the same alliance that 
Louise of Savoy desired ; if her son were indeed to 
be King of France, it was most wise that he should 
marry the Princess Claude. Manlike, he ignored 
the bitter hatred between the two women, for in 
1 5 14, when he believed himself dying, he left the 
Regency conjointly to Anne and Louise ! To think 
of the squabbling which might have ensued paralyses 
the imagination ; but in that year, instead of Louis, 
Anne of Brittany died — and Louise of Savoy felt 
her heart leap once more. In that year, too, 
Francis and the little Claude were married ; he 
being twenty, and she ten. Louise had won so far, 
and now even the marriage with Mary Tudor left 
her comparatively undisturbed ; for Louis, though 
only fifty-two, was (as Louise wrote in her famous 
diary) '■'■ fort antique et debile.'" Francis fell in love 
with the pretty young queen, but that did not 
matter, so long as he was discreet enough to give 

her no pretext for for fathering a bastard-heir 

on the king. The folly of such a proceeding was 
forcibly impressed on Francis — and then, before any 

1 He afterwards became the Emperor Charles V — "Charles- 
Quint." 



170 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

harm was done, there came on the New Year's Day 
of 1 51 5, the wonderful " Doubles Etrennes'\ '' My 
King, my lord, my Cassar, and my son " was King 
of France : had there ever been such an astrologer ! 



The other great Sovereign to whom Augustin 
Grimaldi appealed had no such romantic story. His 
glamour was of the direcdy opposite kind, for 
instead of a series of accidents, it was the majestic 
destiny of regular inheritance which made " Charles- 
Quint " the most powerful monarch of the sixteenth 
century. His father was Philip of Austria, son of 
the Emperor Maximilian I of Germany, and of 
Mary, only child and heiress of Charles the Bold, 
Duke of Burgundy, that " last great figure of the 
Middle Ages " — so obstinate, passionate, rash, and 
'* conjugally faithful." Philip of Austria married 
Joanna, Infanta of Spain, daughter and heiress of 
Ferdinand and Isabella, and their eldest son was 
Charles — who thus inherited, through his grand- 
mother (Mary of Burgundy), the vast wealth of the 
Netherlands ; through his grandfather, the hereditary 
dominions of Austria, as well as a solid claim to the 
Imperial crown of Germany at the next election : 
and through his mother. Infanta of Spain, the united 
monarchies of Aragon and Castile, increased by 
Granada in 1492, by the Two SiciHes in 1504, by 
Navarre in 1512, and later, by the discovery of the 
New World by Christopher Columbus ! 



''Charles-Quint*' 171 

His father died in * 1 506, and Charles then re- 
ceived the Netherlands ; in 1 5 1 6, his maternal grand- 
father, Ferdinand of Aragon, dying, transmitted to 
him the united Spanish crown ; in 1 5 1 9 his paternal 
grandfather, the Emperor Maximilian, passed away 
in his turn, and Charles became Archduke of Austria. 
He became also a candidate for the Imperial crown 
of Germany. There were three rivals : Henry VIII 
of England, Francis I of France, and this Charles I of 
Spain, as he was then called. Charles was elected, 
and his victory was the determining cause of the 
long struggle which ensued between him and the 
King of France. 

Europe was indeed on the eve of a great war. 
These two were resolute to test their strength against 
one another, and Italy was the chosen arena — Italy, 
*' which is almost a theatre of glory for the French 
at the beginning of a campaign, yet becomes in the 
end their tomb." The deadly foes had begun by 
being allies. In 151 5 Francis had drawn to him- 
self not only Charles, but also Henry VIII of 
England, and had collected forces for a campaign 
against Milan. Louis XII had lost the Milanese at 
the battle of Ravenna in 15 13 ; Francis was deter- 
mined to recover it from the Sforza who now again 
held it. At Marignano, in the very year of his 
accession to the throne (15 15), he gained his object 
— Milan fell to the French arms. Then, in 151 9, 
came the rivalry for the Imperial crown, and from that 
time Francis I and Charles V were sworn enjemies. 



172 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

The material for war was ready-made — that weary- 
Milanese claim ; for Charles now felt bound to 
reassert the ancient Imperial rights. It was this 
campaign which brought him into contact with 
Augustin Grimaldi. He had a huge army under 
the Constable de Bourbon in the Genoese Riviera. 
For Bourbon had joined the Emperor — Bourbon of 
the Royal House of France, he who had been almost 
the personal victor in the great engagement at 
Marignano, when Francis had regained Milan ! It 
was Louise of Savoy who had done France and 
her worshipped son that ill turn. One of the most 
avaricious and vindictive of women, she had already 
ruined Lautrec, the famous paladin, against whom 
she cherished a private spite ; now the Constable de 
Bourbon was to feel the weight of her grasping 
hand. She claimed his heritage through her mother, 
Marguerite de Bourbon — quite unjustly, as most 
chroniclers think ; but there had been some idea 
of compromising matters by marrying her to the 
Constable. That would have satisfied her, for she 
was violently in love with him ; but he was not 
at all in love with her — and, more forcibly than 
politely, he said so. She then became his most 
embittered foe. The lawsuit dragged on ; an 
ambiguous judgment was given by the Parliament ; 
then Duprat, the Chancellor, " her very match," 
who ruled her despotically, altered the law in her 
favour, and Bourbon's pfoperty was provisionally 
sequestered, It meant ruin for him. In his fury 



A Short-sighted Admiral 173 

he turned against France, and offered his sword to 
the Emperor. 

By his treaty with Charles-Quint, Bourbon had 
stipulated that the Kingdom of Aries should be 
reconstituted in his favour, and that his first cam- 
paign should be in Provence. Monaco was very 
necessary to Charles, if he were to conduct this war 
successfully, since for the embarkation of an army it 
offered incomparable advantages ; and Charles knew 
that Augustin Grimaldi was bitterly offended by 
the shelter which France had given to Bartolommeo 
Doria. This mistake in tactics had not been wholly 
the fault of Francis I. His admiral, Bonnivet, had 
been requested by Andrea Doria to protect his cousin, 
and Bonnivet had acted for himself in the affair — 
judging that Francis would rather risk displeasing the 
Lord of Monaco than the powerful Genoese Admiral. 
And so Bartolommeo had been sheltered, Andrea 
Doria pleased, and the Lord of Monaco irretrievably 
offended. Charles V seized his opportunity. He 
had already shown his zeal in Augustin's cause 
by partly acknowledging the claims put forth by 
Grimaldi to the Dolceacqua ^nd other Imperial fiefs, 
which Bartolommeo, the outlawed murderer, had 
held. He had also pronounced a definite sentence 
against Bartolommeo : if the fugitive were found in 
any of his dominions he was to be at once handed 
over to the Lord of Monaco. And now France had 
made her blazing blunder, and the moment had come 
for reminding Grimaldi of his own so different 



174 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

behaviour. Charles accordingly sent an envoy to 
propose that Monaco should put itself under 
Imperial protection, and to promise in the Emperor's 
name that Augustin should be aided in his vengeance 
against the Doria. 

But Augustin hesitated. It was a serious step ; 
his House had been for long attached to France, 
he was himself a French bishop, he held French 
property, was in receipt of French pensions. . . 
And while he pondered thus, the King of France 
heard of the incident and sent his admiral, La 
Fayette, to exert French influence against the 
Imperial cajolement. Augustin temporised. He 
told La Fayette that he meant to remain neutral, 
and that every one who wanted to come into his 
harbour should come. La Fayette took this as an 
answer, but the Emperor did not, and intimated 
unmistakably his desire for plainer speaking. 
Augustin then decided to send a cousin, Leonard 
Grimaldi, to treat with Charles V in person, for there 
could be no doubt in the mind of so astute a 
politician as the Lord of Monaco that the Emperor's 
was the winning side. 

It was certainly the quicker-moving one as well. 
Not a day was lost in taking advantage of Augustin's 
step half-way. On June 24, 1594, the Constable 
de Bourbon ordered an Imperial fleet to enter the 
port of Monaco. 

Andrea Doria, as we have seen, was one French 
admiral. La Fayette was another ; the Spanish 



An Officious Cousin 175 

squadron was commanded by one Moncade. The 
French had the advantage ; Moncade was badly beaten 
oiF Nice, and so disabled that his fleet was driven 
to take refuge in the harbour at Monaco. Andrea 
Doria, burning with rage against Grimaldi, at once 
bombarded Men tone, ostensibly in revenge for the 
shelter of Moncade by its supposedly neutral Lord. 
Augustin was in Mentone at the time, and " a ball 
passed within a few inches of him." He could not 
contain his anger at such an insult under the French 
flag, and openly began ofi^ensive measures against 
Francis. Through his instrumentality five of the 
Riviera towns — including Antibes and Grasse — took 
the oath of fidelity to the Empire. 

The Imperialist troops then attacked Marseilles, 
but with no success. The siege was raised after 
thirty-nine days, and the Imperialists escaped with 
difficulty to Monaco. Charles V now needed the 
"strong little place" more than ever, and he 
pressed forward the execution of a treaty which 
Leonard Grimaldi (Augustin's charge d'affaires) had 
arranged. The six articles had been signed, but 
Leonard had greatly outrun his discretion, and 
Augustin, on hearing the particulars, wrote to the 
Emperor and said so. The alienation of the 
Grimaldis overeignty — which was one of the articles 
— was not to be thought of The Lord of Monaco 
would agree to a perpetual alliance, and even to 
the Imperial right of garrison — but to infeodate 
Monaco would be to fail in every tradition of the 



176 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

House, and would be, moreover, in direct opposi- 
tion to Claudine's (his mother's) will. On this 
point he declared himself immovable ; and Charles V 
at once ceded it. 

Every effort had been made to keep the treaty 
with the Emperor a secret, but Francis I inevitably 
heard of it, and at once confiscated all " the 
property, livings, and incomes " which Augustin 
Grimaldi derived from him. The rupture with 
France was now complete ; and Augustin wrote a 
scathing letter to the King, wherein he set forth 
" the fifteen reasons " which had led him to em- 
brace the Imperial cause. First came the harbouring 
of Bartolommeo Doria. There were also the 
bombardment of Mentone, Andrea Doria's subse- 
quent conduct (he had seized two ships and killed 
one of the Monegascans who thus fell into his 
hands), and, harking backwards, the treacherous 
dealings of Louis XII with the former Lord, 
Lucien. Was he bound (Augustin continued) 
because of his benefices in Provence, to declare 
for France .? No. The King had not given them 
to him^ " for had the King shown him kindness, 
comme a tout plein d'autres, he would not have 
found the Lord of Monaco ungrateful." More- 
over, Monaco had nothing to do with such benefices, 
and it was as Lord of Monaco that he had done 
what he had done. Further, " immediately after 
he was cannonaded at Mentone, he sent to the 
King a gentleman to demand justice from him for 



No Blame for Augustin 177 

so great and enormous an outrage ; and in case of 
refusal he charged that gentleman to quit, in his 
name, before the King, all the feudal tenures that 
he held in Provence, car des lors en avant^ il ne 
voulait plus luy estre tenu en aucune chased 

I can find no blame for Augustin Grimaldi. 
His treatment of France was not treachery, but 
ordinary common-sense. Already she had shown 
herself perfidious ; now she was governed by a 
monarch " whom no one ever trusted without 
regretting it." Flamboyant, mean, shallow, and 
treacherous, ruled by his detestable mother and 
his ever-changing mistresses, Francis I was in reality 
a poor specimen of a man and a monarch. He 
had wonderful soldiers, his reign was the last 
reflection of the Age of Chivalry ; but he himself 
can claim no indulgence from history. He broke 
all his promises, he attempted to pay the ransom 
of his two little sons in debased coin, he ended 
the long warfare with Charles-Quint by a treaty — 
the Peace of Cambrai in 1529, called the Ladies* 
Peace — " perhaps the most fatal to the honour of 
France that any of her monarchs have signed." . . . 
From such a protector Augustin Grimaldi was wise 
to break away — and " though his acceptance of the 
Spanish protectorate caused in the end the subjection 
of the Princes of Monaco, he could not foresee 
that, nor could he possibly have remained isolated 
in Europe. He needed powerful protection. His 
policy was sagacious, if it was not loyal." That 

12 



178 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

is Rendu's summing-up of an action, which, in my 
opinion, needs not even so much of justification. 

Monaco moved happily for eighty years in the 
orbit of Spanish politics, and Charles-Quint, while 
he lived, was the faithful, even the intimate, friend 
of Augustin Grimaldi, and of his successor, 
Honore I. 



Francis I, after the Imperial failure in Provence, 
took Milan " without striking a blow." The 
Emperor's side had been so discomfited that at 
Rome lampoons were whizzing about with offers 
of rewards to him who should find the soldiers of 
Bourbon, " lost in the Alps." But Bourbon was 
gradually regaining prestige and confidence, and very 
early in 1525, his army was once more collected 
and formed at Monaco. There ensued, on 
February 24, the Siege of Pavia, " one of the 
most crushing defeats that France has ever known." 
" Pavia " (says Metivier) '' was a sister of Crecy, 
Poictiers, and Agincourt." It was on Pavia's fatal 
day that Francis is fabled to have sent to Louise 
of Savoy the message which for so long ironic 
legend has linked with his name : 'Tout est perduy 
sauf rhonneur. He never did send it : so much 
of self-knowledge the later researches of history 
have granted him. . . He was taken prisoner at 
Pavia, and sent to Madrid, where he remained a 
captive for one year. 



Vengeance I 179 

Charles-Quint wrote, on March 20, 1525, an 
enthusiastically grateful letter to Augustin Grimaldi. 
"For your good, great, and loyal duty to us in 
that fortunate battle against the King of France, 
we cannot thank you enough, but you may feel 
certainly assured that we can never forget such a 
service, and our intention is to recognise it fully." 
Similar letters had reached Grimaldis in all ages, 
but few had had such a steadfast heart behind them 
as that of Charles V. He loaded his ally with 
favours — of which the most glittering, if not the 
most solid, was the bestowal upon him of the title 
" Prince," instead of *' Lord," of Monaco. Augustin 
also received the Marquisate of Campana, one of the 
most important in the Kingdom of Naples ; and by 
the Treaty of Cambrai in 1529 was restored to all those 
French lands which Francis I had taken from him. 

In 1525, the long-desired vengeance was wreaked 
on Bartolommeo Doria. During the turmoil of the 
war, Doria had escaped from La Turbia and shut 
himself up in a strong castle near Vintimiglia. The 
Lord of Monaco instantly assembled a force of over 
six hundred men, marched to the castle, and attacked 
it with such energy that Doria was soon obliged 
to surrender. He was taken, and brought to 
Monaco. There he was tried, found guilty, con- 
demned to death, and, despite Pope Clement V's 
intervention, executed on July 13, 1525. Rendu 
blames Augustin Grimaldi's action in this matter. 
It was justice, he says, but justice without mercy ; 



i8o The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

August! n was a priest as well as a prince ; and the 
Pope's request should, moreover, have been regarded 
as a command. Also, the priest might have remem- 
bered that the Lucien, whom he thus avenged, had 
acquired his power through fratricide (for Rendu 
is among the firm believers in Lucien's guilt) ; and, 
again, Bartolommeo was Augustin's nephew. . . 
Two wrongs, it is true, do not make a right ; but 
they often make a very good reason — and my feeling 
is that Bartolommeo Doria was one of those people 
of whom it is well to rid the world. 

In 1529, Charles V, going to Italy to be crowned 
by the Pope, landed at Monaco and was magnifi- 
cently received. An anecdote is current of this 
visit, which Rendu and Metivier agree in calling 
"very ill-supported." It relates that Charles, coming 
out from one of Augustin's banquets and looking 
down upon the enthusiastic throng beneath the 
Palace-balcony, suddenly called out, " Hail, inhabit- 
ants of Monaco — I make you all nobles ! " . . . 
Notorious as he was, even in that age, for his 
excesses at table, this story is unconvincing ; for 
the conferring of nobility was a solemn ceremony, 
entailing lengthy and meticulous arrangements of 
all kinds (to say nothing of interminable documents) 
— and even when drunk, emperors, like happier men, 
remain to some extent the creatures of custom.-^ 

1 There is still to be seen at Monaco the remains of the velvet 
canopy " with gold crepines" which was carried over the Emperor 
as he went in pomp to the parish-church to hear Mass. 




Progenies di\mv\ ayixT\'s-5ic carouv's illl 

Imperii caesar lvmina-et or a tvlit 

aet • s\ae xxxi 

Ann ' Av ■ D • xxxT 



p. i8o] 



CHARLES THE FIFTH. 
Emperor of Germany. 



Our Alphabet Picture-book i8i 

When Augustin died suddenly in 1532, sheer 
force of habit made some believe that he had been 
murdered. "Not without suspicion of poison," is 
the cautious treatment given to the subject by La 
Gallia Christiana. " But who gave the poison ? " 
M^tivier inquires, and I must echo him. 

Lucien's son Honore, who succeeded, was only 
fifteen years old and therefore governed through a 
guardian-cousin, one Etienne of the Bueil branch, 
who seems to have been a worthy person. But 
nothing detains us during the early part of Honor^'s 
reign ; I find, indeed, only " two C's," (if I may 
be permitted to amuse myself with alliteration), 
and these are the Cactus-pear, and the Cistern : 
'tis like a child's alphabet picture-book ! The 
Cactus-pear, otherwise figuier de Barbarie^ came 
from Africa, whither young Honore, aged eighteen, 
went to fight for the Emperor against the Turks 
of Tunis, accompanied by his chaplain, a Father 
Baptist of the Miracle-Chapel at Carnoles. Baptist 
brought back " six leaves of the cactus-pear " and 
planted them on the rocks at Monaco, where they 
flourished, soon surrounding the ramparts with " a 
green and menacing cincture " — so that the strong 
little place was now stronger than ever, and the 
Barbary-fig protected the inhabitants against the 
Barbary-pirates. . . The second " C " was an 
even more valuable gift — the famous water- tank 
called the Great Cistern. It stands beneath the 
Court of Honour, where it offers a suave challenge 



1 82 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

to the more flamboyant beauties around it — con- 
fident enough as to which 'twere better for the 
Monegascans to do without. 

Honore I, as he grew older, carried out that 
ancient and peculiar destiny of his House — to " co- 
operate in the triumph of the Cross of Christ against 
the Crescent of Mahomet." He fought successfully 
at the Siege of Malta in 1565, and immortalised 
himself on the day of Lepanto in 1571, when he 
served under Don Juan *' of Austria," that brilliant 
bastard of Charles-Quint. The Christian triumph 
at Lepanto was complete ; the battle, as Ranke 
says, was, like the battle of Actium, a decisive 
struggle between East and West — and the joy of 
Europe was ecstatic. 

Honore died in 1581, and left twelve children. 
His eldest son Charles succeeded to an uneventful 
reign, marked only by a French attempt against 
Monaco, "that high-quarters of intrigue, and the 
provision-house of Spain" — which was the aspect 
now borne by our Rock for Gallic eyes. The 
Island of Corsica, through two of its natives, played 
a striking part in this incident ; for it was a Corsican 
inhabitant of Monaco who agreed to betray the 
town to the enemy, and it was a sudden appari- 
tion of the patron-saint, Devote, Corsican virgin 
and martyr, which so terrified the assailants that 
they all ran away. As my readers may perchance 
remember, this was Devote's second intervention 
in defence of her burial-place. . . Charles died in 



The League 183 

1589, unmarried, and his brother Hercules suc- 
ceeded to the Principality, and to a burden which 
his predecessor had scarcely felt — namely, that con- 
dition in the Treaty of Burgos ^ by virtue of which 
the Grimaldis were bound to fight in all wars 
carried on by Spain. Hercules was at once called 
upon to redeem the promise, and thus found him- 
self involved in the contest between Philip II of 
Spain and Henry of Navarre, now become King 
Henry IV of France. 

This was the weary League warfare, which looms 
so large in the French history of the sixteenth 
century ; and Provence felt the strain more than 
any other part of the kingdom. " Never did wild 
beast of the fields, never did flood nor tempest, work 
such havoc as did this false zeal for religion, which 
men called '^he Leagued Thus does Honore 
Bouche revile it ; and the more sober Henri Martin 
has no word in its favour. " The League was the 
Anti-National party in France ; its Catholic principles 
were ultramontane, Hispano-Roman ; France was in 
reality to be made subordinate to a foreign authority." 

It was through Philip of Spain's itch for inter- 
ference with the internal politics of other countries 
that Spain became a combatant ; for to preserve 
some semblance of authority within the League, the 
Municipal Governors sold themselves to him. 
Spain's monarch was not Emperor besides, as his 

' Signed in 1524, between the Emperor Charles V and Augustin 
Grimaldi. 



184 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

father, Charles-Quint, had been. Charles-Quint had 
put him up for election, but once there was any 
question of choice as to a ruler, Philip was fore- 
doomed to failure. He was the most abnormally 
unlovable man in history. One heart only did he 
ever win, and into that heart he drove despair : 
Mary Tudor, Queen of England, his second wife, 
knew every sorrow that man may heap on woman. 
His foe in the League contentions was his very 
antithesis : that Henry of Navarre whom history, 
against her own knowledge, reason, even desire, has 
idoHsed. He was one of those creatures who may 
" do anything," and, in truth, he did most things — 
and said them too. " Paris was well worth a mass," 
and Paris was gained in 1594, and not only Paris 
but the Pope ; for even the Pope succumbed to the 
never-failing charm — absolved him, recognised him 
as King of France ; then Sully, his great Chancellor, 
"bought" what remained of the League, and in 1 596, 
the last of the armed bands made their submission. 

Provence, in the triumvirate of P's, had held out 
longer than Pope or Paris. Marseilles refused to 
recognise the *' King of Navarre." The Due de 
Guise, sent there as the King's Lieutenant in 1596, 
found the town held by two tyrants, " two mush- 
rooms that had grown up in a single night" — namely, 
Charles Cazaulx, a man of low, even beggarly, origin, 
and Louis d'Aix, " supremely mutinous and sedi- 
tious." These were the '* kinglets of Marseilles," and 
deep in their confidence was one Pierre de Libertat, 



** Now Fm Really King V* 185 

a Corslcan, who till now had been known as a zeal- 
ous Leaguer. The Leaguers wanted the town to 
fall into Philip ll's hands, and Philip's galleys were 
ready in the harbour. But Guise, studying his men, 
found that in Libertat he had very different stuff to 
deal with from that which the "mushrooms" pre- 
sented. He gained him to the French King's side, 
and Libertat proved an invaluable turncoat — for he 
killed Cazaulx in an adroitly-arranged ambush ; then, 
opening the gates to Guise, he obliged Louis d'Aix 
to fly, and the Spanish to retreat. Such was the 
importance of this triumph that Henry IV on hear- 
ing of it, exclaimed, " Ah, now I'm really King!" and 
instantly wrote one of his incomparable letters to 
Libertat, expressing his recognition. A statue was 
erected to " The Liberator of Marseilles," in which 
the fact that, as Bouche puts it, "he was deprived 
of one corporal eye " was shown with a frank affection 
which almost turned it into a personal charm. 

The Spanish fleet fled to Monaco, whither Guise 
pursued it. Seeing that impregnable rock, the 
French commander's mouth watered, as many 
another commander's had done. He resolved to 
take it by treachery, since any other means would 
be clearly unavailing. On October 27, accordingly, 
there came from Toulon " five armed fishing-smacks, 
holding two hundred Proven9al soldiers, sent by the 
Governor of Provence (the Due de Guise) with the 
intention of assaulting Monaco a rimproviste, and 
trusting to the secret intelligence which they had 



1 86 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

in the town with a certain Captain Cesare Arnaldi 
of Monaco." This man was to signal to them at 
a good moment for an escalade. He signalled, and 
the French planted their ladders, " very large and 
heavy," in the roughnesses of the rocks, and mounted 
to the perilous assault — for the cliff (near the site of 
the present Fort Antoine) was almost perpendicular. 
They were close to the top, nevertheless, when all 
at once the ladders were violently pushed back into 
the sea, and the men with them. . . The signal had 
been seen ; and Arnaldi was instantly suspected, for 
he had a daughter at Guise's Court, and had lately 
been known to go and come between Marseilles and 
Monaco. He was condemned to death, and the 
death, " characteristic of the barbarous methods of 
Spanish justice at that time," was to be attended 
with every horror. He was to be dragged at a 
mule's tail to the place of torture, there to be pinched 
to death with red-hot irons, then quartered, and 
his limbs stuck up on the ramparts. But though 
there was a huge price on his head, Cesare Arnaldi 
was never caught. His father, therefore, was hanged 
in his place ! 

The Treaty of Vervins in 1598, between Henry 
and PhiHp, put an end to these last convulsive 
struggles in Provence, and then Hercules I of 
Monaco settled down to an inactive life. It was 
bad for him, and worse for Monaco. One chronicler 
has an exquisite phrase : " Hercules had the misfortune 
to abandon himself to his passions^ and to irespect 



Murder Again 187 

neither the wives nor daughters of his subjects." 
The Monegascans were a rough seafaring folk, not 
easily controlled when once they realised a wrong, 
and their wrongs were flagrant and incessant. In 
1604, encouraged (as Gioffredo thinks) by the 
French officials in the place, a party of them, in the 
darkest hour of a November night, penetrated to 
the Prince's apartments, caught and pitilessly killed 
him, then flung his body over the rocks into the 
sea. He was the third reigning prince of the House 
who had been killed in the Palace. 

He left but one son, an infant, Honore, and for 
this baby the assassins ransacked the Palace : he too 
was to be killed, lest the accursed race should govern 
them again. In an old Italian chronicle of 1673 
(quoted by Metivier) ^ we are told that this child 
was hidden, " by the acute zeal of a protector of the 
precious race," in a " luogo immondo" whence after 
the tumult had died away he was taken — and sent, 
very cautiously and as quickly as might be dared, 
to the Prince di Valdetare, his uncle, at Milan. 



Note. — When the Palace was restored under 
Prince Charles III, a room was opened which had 
not seen the light for three centuries. This was 
the one in which Lucien was murdered : Anne de 
Pontevez had had a double wall built round it. . 

1 L' ero'ina intrepida^ overo la Duchessa di Valentinese : historia 
curiosissima del nostra secolo, adornaia da Francesco Fulvio 
Frugoni. 



CHAPTER VIII 

The Revolt from Spain. 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE Prince di Valdetare, who was the maternal 
uncle of seven-yeared Honor6 II, made a 
zealous search for the murderers of Hercules, and 
succeeded in seizing ten of them. Five were 
strangled on December i6, at the same hour in 
which, a month before, they had killed the Prince 
of Monaco, and their bodies were flung into the sea 
from the same place. This was picturesque justice 
truly — Spanish justice, dramatic, merciless, and swift. 
The other five were condemned to the galleys — 
which was probably, though without the limelight, 
a far more terrible fate. 

Valdetare then devoted himself to the task of 
making little Honore and his little principality 
"Spanish." The boy was kept at the Court of 
Milan,^ and every influence he knew was directed 
to Valdetare's end ; while Valdetare, as Governor of 
Monaco, utterly neglected his ward's interests — 
whether with any premonition of the evils which 
would follow one cannot feel quite sure, though he 
must have been a poor statesman if the danger wholly 

* Milan was the capital of the Austrian possessions in Italy. 
191 



192 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

escaped his calculations. His earliest act was to sign 
a treaty which handed over the garrison in Monaco 
to the absolute control of Spain. It was to consist 
solely of a company of Spanish infantry ; the King 
of Spain was to pay and keep up the troops ; the 
Prince of Monaco was to be captain of the company, 
but it was to be chosen by the Duke of Milan, and 
if any soldiers were guilty of grave misconduct, the 
Governor of Milan, and not the Prince of Monaco, 
was to award punishment. The Prince, in short, 
had no jurisdiction whatever over the soldiers com- 
mitted to his command. *' It was simply a capitula- 
tion," says Abel Rendu. And, sure enough, no 
sooner did the new garrison enter (March 7, 1605) 
than the Monegascans were expressly forbidden to 
carry or possess any kind of arms ! 

Thirty- two years later, one de Sabran, ambassador 
for Louis XIII to the Republic of Genoa, wrote 
these words to a friend : " The Spaniard is like the 
devil. The more power one gives him, the more 
one does for him — the more he abuses the power 
and tyrannises over the friend." . . . Honore II 
and Monaco might well have been the text of de 
Sabran's criticism. The yoke was wreathed in 
flowers, of course — brilliant alliances, Order of the 
Golden Fleece, dignity of Grandee of the First Class, 
much property in Spain ; but Honore, as he grew 
older and Spain grew bolder, began to feel that an 
hour of liberty would be worth them all. He 
appealed to the tyrant-country, he recalled the 



The Bitter Heart of Honore 193 

Treaty of Burgos — all in vain ; and at last he re- 
signed himself to a waiting game, that hardest of 
all games for youth and ardour and ambition and 
resentment. No doubt he played it with a sullen 
young face, with bitter, curled young lips, for all in 
a minute Spain turned suspicious, rumours began to 
creep : " 'The Prince of Ovlonaco meant to ally himself 
by marriage with his Protector s foes'' . . . Honor6 
was summoned to Milan. He went, and dissembled 
so well that calumny was silenced, and the good boy 
was given the Golden Fleece (16 16). Three years 
later, he was married to a daughter of the great 
Italian family of Trivulzio, that dazzlingly illustrious 
House which had for so long been an ally of Austria. 
It was a double bond, for his sister Jeanne had, some 
twelve years before, been wedded to Giovanni- 
Giacomo-Teodoro Trivulzio, whose sister Ippolita 
now became the Prince of Monaco's bride. 

By this time, " Monaco was Spain's vassal." The 
Spanish soldiers were the masters in her streets, and 
Milan ruled her councils — for the Prince might no 
longer nominate any of his officials. The insolence 
of the " Spanish devils " was unheard-of " We 
have come here to command, and you talk to us of 
obedience " — that was their answer to any attempt 
at checking their unbridled licence ; and Monaco 
and Honore must bear it all. No redress seemed 
possible. Money- matters were in a terrible con- 
dition. Did Spain now pay her garrison ^ Not 
she ; the Lord of Monaco had to pay. Did she pay 

13 



194 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

him his pensions ? No ; and the treasures of his 
domains in Spanish territory were frequently seized 
to fill her ever-emptying purse. The boy could 
see no way of escape. Sometimes the thought of 
France would stir his heart — France, that old, old 
friend. . . But then a memory would come to 
daunt him, of one Cousin Hannibal of the Bueil 
branch^ and his attempted revolt against another 
tyranny. For Cousin Hannibal had not only lost 
his life, but all the power of his House had perished 
for evermore. 



This had happened between 1599 and 1621, and 
Hannibal's "tyrant" had been Charles-Emmanuel I, 
Duke of Savoy. The Bueil branch was turbulent ; 
over and over again its sons had been traitors to 
their suzerain (whoever he might be), but they had 
always been forgiven and reinstated in their wide 
domains. In 1581 they had demanded and ob- 
tained from Charles-Emmanuel the erection of their 
seigneurie of Bueil into a comte^ and Hannibal 
was the eldest son of the first " Count " of Bueil. 
The Duke of Savoy had taken the young man 
to the French Court in 1599, and Henry IV 
had taken very special notice of him. This had 
turned the excitable Bueil-Grimaldi head. When 
Hannibal came home, his arrogance, already ex- 
cessive, grew until it passed aU bounds. He began 

' See Note at end of this Chapter 



Boasting Bueils 195 

to recall publicly the undoubted truth that Bueil 
had originally been given free of suzerainty, 
although the House had later alienated its inde- 
pendence in favour of the Savoys. No occasion 
for reasserting the abandoned freedom was missed 
by Hannibal, soon Count of Bueil ; and at last 
Charles-Emmanuel's patience came to an end, for 
this boasting Count had a son, Andre, no less 
arrogant than himself, and Andre now publicly 
insulted a Savoyard gentleman. Many gentle hints 
were given, one or two mild sermons administered, 
for Savoy wished, if possible, to gain his end by 
a ruse. Would the Count of Bueil, for instance, 
exchange the Bueil lands for other domains in 
Piedmont (about the suzerainty of which Charles- 
Emmanuel was resolved there should be no question), 
in order to silence the many slanderous tongues 
which said that he desired to render himself inde- 
pendent of the House of Savoy, his family's long- 
time friend ? 

The Count of Bueil refused — and was at once ar- 
rested. He escaped, and shut himself up in the strong 
castle of his patrimony. It was almost inaccessible — 
and Charles-Emmanuel, aware of that, lay low and 
awaited his opportunity. Hannibal, after an appeal 
to Spain which promised well at first but ended 
in nothing, turned to France, and by a treaty signed 
in 1617 France took him under her protection. 
But Charles-Emmanuel was vigilant. In 161 8, 
when the Austro-Spanish forces invaded the Valte- 



196 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

line/ he saw that his moment had come to secure 
French friendship, which he desired for much farther- 
reaching motives than those of punishing a mere 
recalcitrant vassal. Louis XIII eagerly accepted 
the offer of alliance, for it would aid him in the 
great object of French policy at that time — the 
abasement of the immensely powerful House of 
Austria, whose daughter, Anne, he had married in 
1 61 5. He accepted also an offer for another alliance 
which came at the same time. This was to mate 
his sister, Christine of France, with the young 
Prince of Piedmont, Victor-Amadeus, heir to the 
Dukedom of Savoy. They were married in Paris 
on February 11, 1619. 

Hannibal Grimaldi, when he heard this news, 
can have had scant hope for his future. France, 
to be sure, had him under her " protection " — but 
what was that, in the circumstances, likely to be 
worth ? It proved to be worth nothing at all. 
Again Charles-Emmanuel bided his time. He 
waited, for the settling of this little Bueil business, 
until 1620, when the Huguenot troubles at La 
Rochelle were agitating his own ally and Hannibal's 
protector. For France, facing civil war, would 
hardly spare a thought for the Lord of Bueil. . . 
Charles-Emmanuel acted. Hannibal and Andre 
were summoned to trial at Nice. They refused to 



' The Valteline is a long pass leading from the Milanese Ter- 
ritory (then in Austria's hands) to Bavaria and the Tyrol, where 
Austria was strongly allied. It was of great strategic value. 



An Awful Warning 197 

appear, and were condemned, in their absence, to 
death for contumacy, and to the confiscation of 
all that their family possessed. Andre, at first 
ardent in his father's cause, now proved a coward, 
for he fled to France ; but Hannibal, hoping for 
succour from Louis XIII, shut himself up in 
another of his castles — Les Tourettes. Alas ! 
Tourettes was not, like Bueil, impregnable. Tour- 
ettes fell almost immediately, and the Count was 
taken prisoner. At Nice he was put to death — 
tradition tells us by the hand of a Mussulman 
executioner, " because he had declared that he would 
rather die by the hand of a Moor than obey the 
Duke of Savoy." Andre, having run away, could 
only be hanged in effigy. That was better than 
nothing, so it was done — and the people crowded 
round the gibbet with every kind of outrage and 
imprecation, children threw mud, and when later 
the effigy was dragged through the gutters, the 
Nizzards ran along beside it with shouts of glee. 

Thus perished the power of the Grimaldis of 
Bueil ; and Honore II, Prince of Monaco, did 
well to ponder on the tale and resolve to emulate, 
not Hannibal, but that wise watcher of opportunity, 
Charles-Emmanuel, called The Great, of Savoy.^ 



In 1635, the first dawn of hope showed itself. 

• It was this Charles-Emmanuel who made the famous phrase 
of " the artichoke," 



198 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

Armand du Plessis, Cardinal de Richelieu, had 
taken up the reins of government in France in 
1623. For the earliest two years of his career, 
his chief aim was the abasement of the Austro- 
Spanish power. That power, despite the French 
alliance with Savoy, still held the immensely im- 
portant Valteline Pass ; but Richelieu's troops, 
joined to Charles-Emmanuel's, dislodged them, and 
swept the Austrian influence from the region. Then 
the luck turned. Savoy failed in an attack on 
Genoa, and this made the French position in the 
Valteline insecure. The check was serious ; Riche- 
lieu found himself obliged to arrange the dis- 
advantageous Treaty of Monzon with Spain in- 
1626 — "perhaps the darkest hour of his whole 
career." . . . Spain, thus triumphant, encroached 
more and more in Italy, while France, paralysed 
by the Huguenot troubles, was for the hour help- 
less ; but with Richelieu's victory at the Siege of 
Rochelle, that complication ended, and instantly 
(1629) the great statesman was called on to inter- 
vene in Italy. The Pope, the Duke of Mantua, 
Venice, all appealed to France, and Richelieu began 
his new campaign against Spain in 1630. 

Not until 1635 did the French troops come 
within the Lord of Monaco's reach. In that year 
the Spaniards seized the Isles of Lerins, which 
command the Proven9al coast. The position was 
in itself magnificent, and for them was much 
enhanced by the proximity of Monaco. France 



Precedence and Patriotism 199 

must at all costs iregain these islands, and a large 
fleet was formed for the purpose. Everything 
augured well ; the first fierce tussle in the harbour 
of Mentone left France victorious, though the 
Spanish still held the islands ; but at this critical 
moment a squabble for precedence began between 
her commanders which, for a whole year, turned 
all her strength to impotence. The Marechal de 
Vitry, and Henri de Lorraine, Comte d'Harcourt — 
respectively military and naval commanders — both 
desired to be Commander-in-Chief; and these im- 
pressive gentlemen were so absorbed in the vital 
question of precedence that the mere Isles of Lerins 
were forgotten by every one but the Spanish, now 
strongly fortified therein, by Richelieu, fulminating 
periodically from France, and by Honore, Prince 
of Monaco, secretly in league with one Henri 
Grimaldi, Lord of Corbons in Provence, who was 
serving with the French army. Among the plans 
discussed by the French commanders, when they 
happened not to be scratching one another's eyes 
out, was that of a siege of Monaco ; and Honore, 
through de Corbons, had intimated that in case of 
such a thing being attempted, he would be on the 
French side. 

"With his close knowledge of place and plans, his 
help must have proved invaluable, had not the 
French schemes just then come to the ears of the 
Spanish admiral Ferrandina, who at once increased 
the garrison in Monaco by nine hundred men. 



200 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

Richelieu had hitherto looked favourably upon 
Honore's offer ; but he now wrote (on August 29, 
1636) to say that in his view the augmented gar- 
rison rendered the siege of so strong a place most 
inadvisable. The Lord of Monaco could not (he 
added) offer anything worth considering until he 
was free of Spain — for Honore had asked to be 
allowed to make a treaty with the King of France, 
who was to have the Protectorate of Monaco as 
soon as the Spanish were expelled. Thus the first 
hope died. 

In 1637, a second dawned. The Spanish with- 
drew their fleet from the Isles of Lerins ; the French 
at once recovered Santa Margarita (one of the 
islands) and Vitry and d'Harcourt heroically re- 
solved to "make it up." An interview was arranged, 
and each, carefully measuring the distance, went half- 
way from his quarters to meet the other. Amour- 
'propre must be saved, though the heavens or France 
should fall — and fortunately i : was neither which fell, 
but instead the other island, Saint-Honorat, to the 
French arms. Then the Spanish fled to Monaco, 
which for the next three years remained a mere 
Spanish place d'armes ; but within it, Honore Grimaldi 
was acting as France's spy, and Henri, Lord of 
Corbons, was passing on his information. 

At last the war diverged from the Ligurian coast, 
and Spanish suspicion, lulled by the three years' 
apparent quiescence, was once more averted from the 
Lord of Monaco, The garrison was reduced to its 



Honor^'s Star Rises 20 r 

normal size ; Honor6, eager lynx of opportunity, 
saw that his hour was come. Henri de Corbons, 
fully accredited, went to P6ronne (where the French 
camp was) and there concluded a secret treaty 
which was not to be made public until the Prince of 
Monaco was emancipated from Spanish thraldom. 
Honor6 was no less subtle than resolute. He knew 
that the time was at hand, but he knew also how 
easily Spanish suspicion had ever been awakened, 
and Valdetare (still alive) now afforded him an 
opportunity for throwing dust in those vigilant eyes. 
Valdetare pressed upon him another matrimonial 
project which would attach him, as was thought, 
indissolubly to Spain. This was the wedding of his 
only son Hercules with Aurelia, sole child and 
heiress of Luca Spinola of the great Genoese House, 
who was one of the most zealous partisans that 
Spain possessed in Italy. Honore consented — and 
Spain once more felt confident that her mouse could 
never escape her gilded claws, for most of Aurelia's 
immense riches derived from the Kingdom of Naples, 
which had now for long been Spanish property. 

Meanwhile France was kept aware of his real 
intention. He was resolute to strike at once ; and 
France, magnetised by his unflinching conviction 
that his star was at last in the heavens, ordered her 
Governor of Provence ^ to keep five hundred picked 

^ Now Louis de Valois, Comte d'Alais, who had succeeded the 
Mar6chal de Vitry , disgraced after the L6rins affair, and, in 1637, 
imprisoned in the Bastille. 



202 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

men in readiness to enter Monaco directly the 
Spanish left it. 

All was ready, when again the plot leaked 
out. Milan heard rumours ; spies were despatched 
to Monaco, and Caliente, the captain of the Spanish 
garrison, was ordered to be vigilant. He obeyed 
too well ; Honore Grimaldi felt the eagle-eye upon 
him once more, and contrived to warn d'Alais in 
time for the expedition from Marseilles to be kept 
back, Caliente, finding that no ships arrived on the 
appointed day, wrote to Milan a paean in praise of 
the Lord of Monaco's loyalty : " He is more 
Spanish than I am myself ; but if 1 see the slightest 
sign of any action being taken, I shall at once send 
him and his son as prisoners to Milan." By some 
extraordinary accident, this letter fell into Honore's 
hands, and while it made him all the more cautious 
in his actions, it struck into his heart such appre- 
hension and fury that his resolve turned to 
adamant. 

He made few confidants — only four : his son 
Hercules, aged but seventeen, yet already very 
sagacious ; his secretary, Giovanni Brigati ; Jerome 
Rey, the captain of his guard ; and Father Pachiero, 
cuH of the parish-church. A French attack on 
Monaco was still vaguely talked of among the gar- 
rison, and Pachiero made a skilful use of this bogey. 
He announced a neuvaine of public prayer to God 
and Sainte Devote for the defeat of the French ! 
These prayers were to be said in the evening, so that 



'* Would the Spanish Devils Hear ? '' 203 

everyone could come to church, and they were to 
last from the 4th to the 13th of November, 1641. . . 
Now, on the 13th, the Spanish would be "moving 
troops" at Monaco — the old ones going to Nice, 
the new ones arriving thence, and between the 
departure and the arrival there would be an interval 
with only two hundred and ten soldiers in barracks. 

On the night of the nth, Honore brought to- 
gether in a ground-floor room of the Palace a secret 
assembly of his adherents — now a small but devoted 
band, recruited with infinite precautions by Rey and 
Brigati. They numbered more than a hundred 
persons. Plans were discussed, and when all was 
settled, Honore rose and made a passionate, moving 
speech. Every heart was aflame — ann, perceiving 
his success, he turned in a dramatic inspiration to 
the walls where hung the panoplies of ancient 
weapons, tore one down, held it on high, and called 
on each to follow his lead. Soon a hundred hands 
were waving a hundred weapons — and, in the 
enthusiasm, somebody let off a pistol. Instantly all 
were rigid and silent. Would the Spanish devils 
hear ? or even some officious outsider, unwitting of 
the plot ? They waited, struck as it were to stone. . . 
Nothing but the howl of wind, the rattle of rain — 
for a great storm was blowing. They separated 
then, each with a hidden weapon. All was well 
so far. 

But with morning (the 12th) came another alarm. 
A Spanish page brought Rey a letter which he had 



204 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

picked up in a corridor — a letter from the Governor 
of Provence to the Lord of Monaco ! It had fallen 
from lionores just aucorps ; it dealt with the altered 
arrangements for the despatch of the five hundred. . . 
The boy could read no French, it was true — but had 
he brought the letter straight to Rey ? That was 
what no one could know. . . This time the sus- 
pense lasted for hours, lasted indeed all through 
that night. If the Spaniards should keep back the 

troops next morning ! That would be the sign. 

There were many sleepless men in Monaco on the 
night of November 12, 1641. But with morning 
came the blare of trumpets and the throb of drums : 
the troops were starting for Nice ! 

It was the Day at last — the fabled, defamed 
" thirteenth." Nothing was to be done until the 
evening. The faithful would then be at their 
prayers ; the plotters would be shut up at home 
— all to issue forth at an appointed hour to the 
rendezvous where the chiefs awaited them. At 
the rendezvous would be two companies. Thirty 
men under Hercules were to attack the Spanish 
quarters ; another thirty under Rey were responsible 
for the Palace. Honore himself was then to come 
out with a troop of fifty, and undertake the assault 
on the great gate of the town. Meanwhile, 
Pachiero " was fighting in his way as valiantly as any 
soldier of them all for his little country." The 
sermon he preached that night was the longest ever 
preached by mortal man, and when his breath gave 



The End of a Long Hymn 205 

out, he set his congregation singing. The long 
hymn ended in its turn — and full on the last note 
there fell the sound of firing. Shouts of triumph 
followed. The congregation stared in one another's 
faces, then, without waiting for blessing or word of 
dismissal, rushed pell-mell into the streets. 

What had been happening outside while they dozed 
through that terrible sermon, and chanted that in- 
terminable hymn ? At eleven o'clock, shadows had 
begun to detach themselves from every house ; the 
streets had swarmed gradually with silent men ; two 
columns had crossed the square. The Spanish 
soldiers, surprised at their posts, had quickly re- 
covered their nerve, had resisted well. The issue 
had for a moment been uncertain, but then Honor^ 
came up with his fifty and vigorously assaulted the 
great gate. Old Caliente fought like a lion. The 
fifty made a desperate effort ; eight Spanish were 
killed and many ; wounded ; the great gate opened 
at last — Honore and his men marched in ; and the 
Spaniards at the two other gates, discouraged by 
the tidings, gave up further resistance. They were 
all disarmed and locked up in the Palace — and the 
faithful, rushing from their prayers, found the French 
in, the Spanish out, and the Lord of Monaco and 
Father Pachiero weeping joyfully in one another's 
arms ! Similar tears were soon flowing in every 
direction ; not a street but was ringing with con- 
gratulations ; " every one felt like a different person ; 
every one felt as if he were issuing from the 



2o6 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

tomb.". . . Next day, Monaco was hung with gar- 
lands, and the people sang in the streets. 



Spain did not easily accept the altered state of 
things. Through her friend, Maurice of Savoy, 
Pretender to the Dukedom,^ who was Commandant 
at Nice, she at once sent an envoy to Honore, 
promising him satisfaction for all his grievances if 
he would refrain from bringing the French into 
Monaco. But Honore repHed — and through the 
ages one can hear the exultation in his voice — " Gia 
e valicato il Rubicone ! " The new Protector's troops 
soon entered Monaco, and on November i8 a 
dramatic scene took place. In the presence of the 
old garrison and the new, the Prince of Monaco 
laid aside his collar of the Golden Fleece, and, 
assuming the white scarf of France, declared himself 
to be now under her protection — at the same time 
handing back to Caliente the discarded collar, 
together with a letter for the Governor of Milan. 

" If I take back what is mine," said the letter, 
"it is but right that I return to His CathoHc 
Majesty what is his. I received the Order of the 
Golden Fleece as a lien of my servitude, and as 
my sole recompense for having consigned this place 
to His Catholic Majesty. Now that dire necessity 
breaks off that servitude, I return the Collar of 

' On the plea that Charles-Emmanuel, eldest son of Christine of 
France, was of doubtful paternity. 



And of a Long Slavery 207 

the Golden Fleece, that it may be used to decorate 
or to attach someone who may serve His Catholic 
Majesty with greater good fortune, though not 
with greater fidelity, than I have served him." 

So ended the long domination. From 1525 to 
1605, the Spanish kings had been good friends 
and protectors ; then Valdetare had sown the wind 
which had blown his fellow-countrymen back 
across the sea. Ever since the treaty of 1605, 
Spain had been nothing less than a cruel and 
avaricious tyrant. . . When the garrison was gone, 
the Monegascans met together and vowed to cele- 
brate their deliverance on the 21st of November (the 
Feast of the Presentation of the Virgin) of every year 
by a solemn procession through the town — a vow 
which is still religiously kept. 



France had now pushed her conquests in Pied- 
mont so far that Monaco was to her an almost 
inestimable treasure. Saint-Simon might, in time 
to come, write disdainfully of " a rock from whose 
centre its sovereign can, so to speak, spit over his 
own boundaries" — but size had never been the 
standard of the value set upon this *' strong little 
place." It was the incomparable position and the 
impregnability of our Rock which had caused it to 
be the gauge of so many a conflict, and Louis XIII 
made no secret of his joy in having won it. In 
May 1642, Honore, with his son Hercules, went 



2o8 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

to meet the French King at his camp before 
Perpignan, and there he was shown every honour 
that can be heaped upon an " illustrious person 
who gives a jewel to the crown of a puissant king." 
On the day after his reception he was summoned 
to the Royal bedroom, where Louis invested him 
with the Order of St. Michael ; and later, in the 
chapel, the King drew from the pocket of his 
justaucorps the Order of the Holy Spirit, and, giving 
it to Honore, remarked, " My dear cousin, I do 
not treat you in the ordinary way ; I do not insist 
on the ceremonies requisite to make a Knight of 
this Order — for you are not regarded in an ordinary 
light, and I am glad that people should know that 
your merit and my inclination cause me to act in 
this manner. Above all, remember that the King of 
Spain has never given the Order of the Fleece in 
France, as I now give that of the Holy Spirit in 
Spain " — for Perpignan was Spanish territory, since 
it lay in Roussillon, the Spanish province which 
Louis XIII was then conquering, and which was 
in that year united to the Crown of France.^ This 
happened on May 22, 1642. 

A more substantial, if less moving, mark of friend- 
ship was the ratification of the Treaty of Peronne, 
which de Corbons had arranged in 164 1. It was of 
an essentially cordial and intimate character (remarks 
Sainte-Suzanne) ; the interests of the Lord of 
Monaco were guarded with an almost touching 

* Now the province of Pyr6n6es Orientalee, 



Favours from France 209 

care : he was to be absolute master in his own 
dominions, sole chief of his political government as 
well as of his domestic administration — " he alone," 
in short, " commands in his State." Then came 
the question of compensation for Honor6's Spanish 
losses, since Spain had naturally confiscated every- 
thing which came from her. By letters-patent, 
Louis XIII gave him the Duchy-Peerage of Valen- 
tinois in Dauphine, the comte of Carladez and the 
seigneurie of Saint-Remy in Provence, besides the 
Marquisate of Baux — one of the richest in Provence 
— for Hercules, now deprived of his Spanish Mar- 
quisate of Campana. And in 1643 the King went 
further, for he made the Duchy of Valentinois 
descend in the female line.^ France, in a word, 
was " putting herself in four pieces " to repair the 
wrongs inflicted by Spain, and thus to bind the 
Princes of Monaco by ties indissoluble — in so far 
as that can be accomplished in the world of mortal 
men. The King promised to stand sponsor to the 
first-born son of Hercules and Aurelia Spinola. 
This personage arrived in 1642, but Louis XIII 
died (May 14, 1643) before he could keep his 
promise — which, however, Anne of Austria faith- 
fully performed through her son Louis XIV. The 
christening took place at Monaco in October 1643, 
the boy being, of course, named Louis. 

Honore Grimaldi, as Duke and Peer of France, 

* The Duchy, not the Peerage, for France does not recognise a 
peeress in her own right, 

14 



2IO The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

must now follow the great French fashion of the 
period : devotion to the person of the King. It 
had become essential to be a courtier rather than a 
soldier. The Prince of Monaco was nothing loth. 
He spent much of his time in France, he made 
friends with the nobles, he learnt the language ; 
his relations with the Court were of the happiest — 
Anne of Austria would sign her letters to him with 
" votre bonne cousineT . . . But when he went to 
Paris again in 1651 for the majority of Louis XIV, 
the most terrible misfortune of his life marked the 
otherwise brilliant date. His son Hercules, Marquis 
de Baux, went one day with his wife and children 
to the convent of Carnol^s at Mentone, and after 
his visit amused himself in some neighbouring 
gardens by shooting with arquebuses (some say 
pistols) at a target. He ordered a soldier of the 
guard to display his skill in this sort, and the man, 
eagerly turning to obey, caught the weapon in his 
belt — it went off, and, after wounding two people, 
struck the Marquis in the spine. No skill could 
save him ; he died the following day, upholding the 
soldier's innocence, and begging that he should be 
punished in no wise. The soldier had tried to 
kill himself in his despair. He was, despite the 
dead Prince's wishes, imprisoned for a while, but 
finally he was set free, and ordered to leave the 
State. . . Gioffredo, who gives these details, adds 
that the accident had been prophesied by a monk, 
and that there was, moreover, a legend current that 



The Ghost 211 

some days before, the Marquis had been sitting 
alone, reading, in a little cabinet near his library, 
when suddenly there appeared to him '* an unknown 
human form," which asked him what he was doing. 
He replied categorically that he was reading. 

"Read," said the phantom, "and learn, for" (and 
the sequence seems foolish even for a ghost) ^' you 
will very soon have no need of either " — with which 
words it disappeared, " leaving him for a long while 
filled with terror and perplexity." 



From this period dates the celebrity of the church 
and convent of Laghetto. Aurelia Spinola, desolated 
by her young husband's death, lavished great sums 
on the shrine, which had been rebuilt by a rich 
Monegascan lady, one Camilla Porta.^ She, tortured 
by a painful complaint and pronounced incurable by 
the doctors, had caused herself as a last resource 
to be carried to the little ancient chapel — then a mere 
heap of ruins — and there for three days had prayed 
without intermission to the Virgin of the Seven 
Dolours. At the end of that time she returned 
to Monaco, completely cured. In gratitude she 
rebuilt the chapel ; news of the miracle spread, and 
Laghetto, still further enhanced by the rich gifts 
now offered there by Aurelia, became a place of 
pilgrimage. The town of Nice helped to build a 

1 Durante says she was the wife of a gentleman of Monaco, named 
Casanova. 



212 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

convent in which the Carmes D^chauss6s established 
themselves ; and to this day the place is visited, at 
Whitsuntide and Lady-Day, by thousands of pilgrims. 
Proven9als and Ligurians, old and young, rich and 
poor, men and women, troop to implore Our Lady 
of Laghetto ; the chapel is crammed with ex-votos ; 
" the whole road, from both Turbia and Nice, is 
a living mass." In very ancient days there was a 
little lake (^Laghetto) at the spot, but all trace of that 
has now disappeared. 



Honore Grimaldi lived and reigned until 1662. 
In that year he died, aged sixty-five — loved and 
regretted by all, for " to an infinite gentleness and a 
rare prudence, he united much learning and flawless 
courage. These quaUties were still further enhanced 
in him by nobihty of manner and beauty of person. 
His administration was kindly, even paternal, and 
the love of the people, which had surrounded him in 
his life, followed him at his death, which was a 
personal grief to the entire region."^ 

" Such," says Metivier, in his first reference to 
that Rendu who belabours him so incessantly, 
"is the eulogy of a writer who is Httle to be 
suspected of any partiaUty in favour of the Princes 
of Monaco." 

He was succeeded by his grandson Louis, Due 
de Valentinois, who was the godson of Le Roi 
• Abel Rendu, Menton et Monaco. 



''For this Relief. . :* 213 

Soleil, and who, two years before his father's 
death, had married Charlotte-Catherine de Gramont, 
daughter of Antoine de Gramont, Marshal and Peer 
of France, and Marguerite Duplessis de Chivre, 
niece of the great Richelieu. 

With her begins the decline and fall of that 
irreproachable virtue hitherto so remarkable in the 
women of the Grimaldi chronicles. She was the 
too-famous " Madame de Monaco " — heroine of a 
six-volumed book by the great Dumas, and of a 
scandalous small pamphlet in a series entitled Les 
Grandes Amoureuses^ wherein one Alfred Asseline 
spares neither her memory nor our susceptibilities 
any blow that he can deal them. 'Tis le grand Steele 
in full blast, notorious names star every page ; and I 
suspect that after the rigorous masculinity we have 
hitherto had to deal with, a puff of powder that is 
not gunpowder, the flutter of a fan or two, the 
whisper of a petticoat, will bring a smile of relief to 
lips which must often have been perilously near 
shaping themselves to a yawn. 



Note. — ^There is an amusing passage in The 
Sydney Papers referring to a member of the Bueil 
branch who visited England in 1 6 1 5. It occurs in 
a letter from Sir John Throgmorton to Robert, 
Viscount Lisle. I give it with the original 
spellings. 



214 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

" Their cometh over into Englande with this 
Passage, an Italian Gentelman, called Signior Pietra 
Grimaldy, a Genevois as he sayeth : He braggeth 
infinitely of his Majesty's, our dear Master's, Favour 
unto him, and produceth a letter which, he sayeth, 
his Majesty wrote lately unto him. He sayeth he is 
Cosen unto the Marquis Spinola. I have had Speache 
with him heare. 1 protest, I feare he is some 
Counterfeyte, and hath littell good Meaning in him. 
He is a verye tall yong Man, littell Beard, full- 
fased, and the Colur of his Hayre sumwhat whitish ; 
he is apparelled in perfeumed Leather Doblet and 
Hoose, a sadd-coUored ryding Coote lyned with a 
Pur pell-colored wrought Velvett. I think it fytt to 
give your Lordship Knowledge of him, to the Ende 
that by you theyre maye be Notis given unto his 
Majesty that their is such a Personage arrived in his 
Kingdom." 

(Ulushing, this 
i\th of October, 1615.) 



"He was not *a Counterfeyte,' " (says Hhe Gentle- 
man s Magazine for December, 1832), "but a 
fiobleman of immense wealth, Governor of Savoy, 
cousin of Marquis Spinola. His descendant, John 
Baptist Grimaldi, was Doge of Genoa in 1752 ; and 
his son, Francis, having died possessed of property in 
England, his will was proved at Doctors' Commons 
in 1800." 



CHAPTER IX 

" Madame de Monaco.*' 



CHAPTER IX 

WITH Charlotte de Gramont, Duchesse de 
Valentinois — later, Princesse de Monaco — 
our whole atmosphere changes. The gallant girl 
presents us not only with a fresh type, but with 
something still more diverting — a fresh point of 
view. We see a Grimaldi for the first time as 
" others ' ' saw him, and those others the most 
highly-developed social phenomena of their epoch — 
namely, the courtiers of the Court of Louis XIV. 
Attributes and achievements which hitherto had 
made unquestioned claims upon popular admiration 
were by these superfine folk regarded as elementary. 
All men were brave, all men could fight well, die 
well — good heavens ! they were not so simple as to 
stop and stare at that kind of thing. What else 
could So-and-So do ^ 

Our poor Louis Grimaldi could not do anything 
else. In the chronicles of the time — in the dazzling 
pages of Saint-Simon, the soberer but no less critical 
record of Dangeau, above all in that stinging recon- 
struction of the contemporary mind which Dumas 
presents as the "authentic memoirs" of Charlotte 
217 



21 8 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

de Gramont ... in all these, M. de Valentinois or 
M. de Monaco (as the case may be) cuts a very ridicu- 
lous figure. He does everything wrong — wears the 
wrong wigs, the wrong clothes ; bows wrong, speaks 
wrong, makes love wrong. Narrow, tyrannical, vain, 
pretentious, and obtuse, he typifies, for those merciless 
observers, the provincial " big-wig " at his worst ; and 
if brilliant malice be at any time excusable, assuredly 
it is when such a portent has joined the company. 



Charlotte de Gramont came of an immensely 
arrogant family. Her father, Antoine de Gramont, 
was Sovereign Prince of Bidache and Barnache, 
Duke and Peer, Marshal of France, and so on — 
the most accomplished courtier of his age, beloved 
by Richelieu and Louis XIII. He had married, 
indeed, a niece of Richelieu — that Marguerite Du- 
plessis de Chivre of whom her husband said, in later 
life, that she " could give Beelzebub fifteen points 
and a bisque." Charlotte was her father's born 
daughter ; all his arrogance, all his insolence, all his 
lack of moral sense, were hers. She was very lovely 
— tall, with a notably beautiful figure, ** throat and 
shoulders consummately turned " ; superb ash- 
coloured hair, black eyes " both sweet and spark- 
ling," a brilliant complexion, and " something very 
captivating in my smile when I don't frown — for 
when I do, I'm terrifying. My teeth are dazzling 
and my lips crimson." 




From an engraving by Carenave, after the picture by Rigatid. 

LE DUC DE LAUZUN. 
p. 218] 



Lau2un, and a Lobster 219 

A beauty of the first rank, one perceives, 
and not handicapped by any diffidence about her 
charms ; highly intelligent, too, though without 
formal education, for "I was spoilt as a child ; 
it was the time of the Fronde, when people 
thought little of learning." What chance had our 
poor provincial with such a girl ? and a gir], too, 
who since her earliest grown-up days had been in 
love with that " Puyguilhem " — otherwise the im- 
mortal Lauzun — whose fame has come down to us 
as one of the great beaux-laids of history. When 
the beau-laid enters the lists, even well-favoured 
masculinities find it, as a rule, wise to retire ; yet 
here is a portrait of the youth who, in an arrogant 
and reckless woman's zenith of beauty, dared to 
challenge the lover who ** in one hour, so intoxica- 
ting is his personal charm, can make up to you for 
ages of torture." ... A fat, short man, " with eyes 
like a white rabbit's, a trumpet-nose, and blubber 
lips," who wore a monstrous uncurled straw-coloured 
wig, who walked "like a chair-porter with his legs 
far apart," who had hands " like an accoucheur's or 
a dentist's, plastered with rings on every finger," 
and about whom the most remarkable thing was 
a scarlet face which got as livid as a cock's-comb 
on the slightest provocation. " M. de la Roche- 
foucauld and La Bruyere say that this kind of 
lobster is always very stubborn and superlatively 
malicious. They are right — so far as hes concerned, 
at any rate. . ." Charlotte was between nineteen 



220 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

and twenty, and Louis de Valentinols a little 
younger, when they met at Caderousse, the country- 
seat of a de Gramont cousin. Cardinal Mazarin, 
very intimate with the family, had suggested to 
Antoine de Gramont the desirability of a Grimaldi 
son-in-law, and Charlotte had been brought to 
Caderousse on purpose to meet Valentinois. It was 
some time before she realised the horrible plot, for 
though this " bear from the Alps " danced round her 
incessantly, his conversation was not impassioned. 
" Mademoiselle, do you like cod-fish ? " 
" Really, sir, I don't know. I've never eaten it." 
'' Well, four years ago, I spent careme in a 
Franciscan convent, and they gave me cod-fish twice 
a day on Sundays." 

The black eyes that were " both sweet and spark- 
ling " would, at such ethereal moments of Grimaldi- 
courtship, encounter the eyes of Puyguilhem — we 
can figure to ourselves in what a spirit. . . But not 
until she was back at Bidache did the full truth 
come out. " I uttered a cry of terror." But then 
she laughed till she cried. *'That was always the 
way ; he was always either atrocious or ridiculous. 
When he didn't make me cry, he made me laugh." 

She cried much in these first days. There were 
interviews with Mamma, and a great scene of 
shutting herself up in her room and eating nothing ; 
then Puyguilhem was told, and he mocked at the 
very notion of such a rival. They would find a 
way of escape — never fear ! . . . He comes to her 



"Toutc la Lyre'' 221 

room at night, when everyone else is asleep, and 
they discuss it. Puyguilhem has a sure device. 
*' Will you give yourself to me .? Then you will no 
longer belong to yourself." She listens to him ; 
'* all that is most seductive, most irresistible : the 
veiled voice that won so many hearts, the incom- 
parable grace, the look all eager tenderness. . ." 
Inevitably she consents ; he goes, with her promise 
for to-morrow night, and tosses in at her window 
a nosegay wet with morning dew, and, hidden in 
its leaves, a letter ^^ embaume des fleurs de V amour.'''' 
She wears it on her heart all day. Next night he 
comes. There are roses nodding in at the window, 
there are trees, a moon. . . In her '* memoirs," she 
recalls the scene, and contrasts it with the present : 
" Cest ainsi que tout change, tout passe ^ et quand on y 
songe bien, ce n est pas la peine de nattre^ 

For Papa — absent in the early days of the terri- 
fying prospect — soon comes home, and though she 
" no longer belongs to herself," Charlotte has her 
tremors. Mamma and her stupid gouvernante be- 
lieve that she has submitted ; they inform Papa that 
she loves M. de Valentinois. " No one will make 
me believe that," says Antoine de Gramont. " My 
daughter smitten with such a fellow — nonsense ! " 
But she is to marry him, nevertheless — for the sake of 
the Principality and the Duchy of Valentinois. The 
hour comes for her interview, for the Great Avowal : 
/ no longer belong to myself. Papa begins by saying 
that of course she does not, cannot, love the suitor. 



22 2 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

She answers proudly, " I thank you, sir. It 
cannot be — and is not. But I am in love." 

Papa does not flinch. " Do you take me for 
a tyrant ? I don't force you to care for the fellow. 
He's a fool, I know ; a barrel, I see ; a hound, 
I think. But — become Princess of Monaco, and 
after that, let him be anything Heaven pleases. I 
shan't care ! " 

" I'd rather die," she says. " And besides . . . 
je ne m'appartiens plus.'' The great confession is 
made ; and Papa bursts out laughing. 

He laughs her down ; then finds the lover, and 
feigning not to know that it is he, (though Char- 
lotte, in her anger and mortification, has given the 
name), informs him that anyone who now runs off 
with the girl will have nothing but the girl — no 
money, no influence at Court, no favour. . . Papa 
knows his Puyguilhem : enough has been said. 

Puyguilhem plays " the comedy of despair " that 
night, weeps in her arms, but renounces her — she 
must submit, must marry the bear from the Alps. . . 
"It is impossible for anyone to be blinder and 
sillier than I was. I believed in his tenderness, 
in his * sacrifice ' ; I promised to do what he asked — 
and from that day I had done with honour, for had 
I not resolved to give my hand to a man 1 hated, 
while I swore to another that I would love him 
evermore? It was my father's fault. Ah, but he 
is cruel when he laughs — he is a fiend." 

Well, she was married on January 4, 1660, gor- 



The '*Nuit de Noces'' 223 

geously decked for the sacrifice — silver brocade, 
pearls, priceless laces, a princess's crown, " in the 
Italian fashion," sent by Mazarin. *' Nothing was 
lacking, except some colour in my face." But the 
bridegroom made up for that, and " his smile seemed 
to epitomise all the idiotic things he had ever said, 
and had still to say." Puyguilhem was smiling, too, 
but "his eyes were like flames." 

By the next morning the keynote of that most 
wretched marriage was struck. No humiliation 
had been spared the bride. First there was an 
" entrance " so grotesque that the lady's-maid 
was obliged to hide her laughter behind the 
window-curtains. A nightcap had been donned — a 
nightcap en cloche ; a valet and two pages followed 
the impressive wearer, laden with relics, images, 
lozenges, bottles of holy water, chaplets : a table was 
needed to hold them all. "I thought they would 
never finish with the fussing." But at last husband 
and wife were alone. Two wax-candles were bulg- 
ing by the bed ; impetuous Charlotte blew them 
out. 

" What does that mean, Madame .'' " 

" I don't know, Monsieur." 

" Shall I call somebody to light them again } " 

" That is not necessary." 

He did not perceive her irony ; what could such 
a dullard perceive } Nothing that was subtle, be 
sure — nothing that was sensitive. . . She fled, with 
the first streak of dawn, to her faithful maid's room. 



224 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

threw herself down, wept tumultuously — then, 
stunned by fatigue and misery, fell asleep on the 
good creature's bed. But before long she must 
return to the " fatal chamber " — and lo ! the Prince 
had not stirred. Soon he opened his eyes, however, 
rubbed them, looked at her, and said, " Corhleu ! 
Madame, so now you're my wife, and make no 
mistake — it's a great honour for you. I warn you 
from this morning that if you take it into your head 
to be like your grandmothers,^ your aunts, and a lot 
of your other relations, who are worth just nothing 
at all, you'll find it a very bad look-out." 

Charlotte de Gramont heard ; for a moment or 
two could not answer. Then she spoke. " You 
forget, I think, where you are, and who I am, when 
you speak of the honour you do me, and insult 
my family in this manner. / should not have 
provoked so quickly an explanation of this kind — 
but I accept it. I do not listen to such speeches. 
I am your wife, it is true, but I am the Duchesse 
de Valentinois also. I know my duty, in every 
respect ; there is no need for you to recount it." 

The gallant Grimaldi listened, all amazed : " with 
his bell-nightcap flattened by the pillow, he was 
absolutely indescribable." But he plucked up 
courage, he essayed to reprove. Charlotte under 
reproof was an explosive of high power: before 
they left the room, her Prince was a shattered man. 

> One of her ancestresses was La Belle Corisande, a mistress of 
Henri IV. 



Unwelcome 225 

" From that moment dated the whole course of our 
common life. . . Was there ever such a sheep ? 
I can never think of him, even now, without shame 
and fury." 

She would not go to Monaco : that was the 
first-fruits of the marital tussle. " Monaco and 
honeymoon — those words together give me goose- 
flesh." No, she would follow the Court, and in 
this resolve her father upheld her. Anne of Austria, 
the Queen-mother, in one of her silly caprices 
actually took a fancy to the husband ; Monsieur 
found the wife very much to his taste ; Madame, 
always attached to the de Gramonts, bestowed many 
a gracious confidence on the sister of Armand de 
Guiche. Soon she was appointed to be Superin- 
tendent of Madame's Household — that " odd menage 
of which I dare not say all that I know and have 
seen." So Charlotte was Madame's confidante, 
Monsieur's gossip, the King's admiration, Guiche's 
go-between, Lauzun's mistress — something in fact 
to everyone, even to the abhorrent husband, for 
(most unhappily in her view) she was soon the 
expectant mother of a Grimaldi-baby. But bad 
as she thought it, she had no idea at first how 
bad. It dawned on her at last : she would have to 
go to Monaco. The baby must be born there. The 
" whole tribe " of Grimaldis insisted on that ; her 
father, who hitherto had upheld her in the refusal 
to exile herself, now came to her room and told her 
it was no longer to be persisted in. But she should 

15 



226 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

not stay, he promised her ; she should come back, 
prettier than ever, having " done her duty," and 
would thenceforth reign at Court and never be 
worried again. 

She wept, but she went — followed for a week 
by Lauzun in various disguises, impenetrable to 
all but her. . . She saw her future Principality 
at last. " 'Tis just a Prince's toy. There 
are three ships, which they call the fleet ; four 
guards, whom they call the army ; ten courtiers, 
whom they call the Court" ; but the view was 
exquisite — she would have liked to " set Paris down 
on this rock." All the relatives were there, 
"gorgeous but ridiculous"; she had a very large, 
very gloomy room, hung with curtains that had 
been looted at Constantinople by one of the 
crusading ancestors : " nothing could be finer, or 
more depressing." The husband beamed ; people 
didn't laugh at him on his Rock ; he was the first 
person in the land. He displayed the family 
portraits, dwelt upon the distant dates, the long 
glory of his House, " as if he were talking to a 
nobody." She flamed forth. " I know something 
about ancestors, you may remember. The battle 
of Roncesvalles wasn't fought yesterday ! " But 
the lovely view could restore her to good-humour ; 
she enjoyed the universal homage ; " all those dark 
eyes gazing at me." . . . And at last, the baby 
arrived — a boy, Antoine, after the father who was 
a fiend when he laughed at one. Still it was 



"Byronism/* and a White Hand 227 

pleasant to impose the family-name of the de 
Gramonts upon the Princes of Monaco. 

While the christening-feasts were in preparation, 
Honore II, reigning Prince, fell ill. Charlotte liked 
the good old man. " He died in my arms, as it 
were. I was only just beginning to love him when 
God took him away, which diminished my regrets, 
or at any rate made them as short-lived as my 
affection had heenr In that heartless " reflection " 
we have the very spirit of the age. 

So now (1662) Louis I and Charlotte were Prince 
and Princess of Monaco, and baby-Antoine was Due 
de Valentinois. She was soon tired of the festivities, 
of the long ceremonial harangues in Italian, which 
she hated to speak, and did not speak : " I answered 
in French with all my customary assurance, and 1 
never saw so many astounded faces as I saw then." 
An old admirer reappeared, M. de Biaritz, known 
familiarly at Bidache as Charlemagne, because he was 
so proud of his ancient lineage : " 'twas as old as 
the Pyrenees themselves." Biaritz was strangely, 
Byronically beautiful — " and why was M. de 
Monaco so utterly uninteresting .? " . . . But M. de 
Monaco was to have his turn at last. Coming back 
one day from driving, our Princess found a new 
arrival at the Palace : a laughing, closely-hooded 
lady, holding out an incomparable white hand 
(" only the Queen-mother's can equal it in beauty "), 
and crying in a gay sweet treble : " Guess who 
I am ! " Charlotte guessed at once. It was 



228 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

Hortense Mancini, that beauty of beauties, run 
away from her insufferable husband, the Due de 
Mazarin. . . Louis I of Monaco was soon oblivious 
of his wife's infidelities, for Hortense tried her hand 
on him, " and he went off like a match." Nothing 
was good enough for the Duchesse de Mazarin ; '* he 
was like a little shopkeeper receiving the parish priest. 
I shrugged, and felt inclined to call her Mancini, . . 
But she was very charming, and kept us up till three 
in the morning, though she hadn't slept since leaving 
Paris. She was made of iron, however." 



Now that things had arranged themselves in the 
true grand-siecle manner, our Prince and Princess 
soon returned to Paris. Hortense Mancini went 
first to Rome, whither Charlotte's husband followed 
her ; then came Paris on the way to England, and 
he could not rest till he knew she was safe from 
her husband. Charlotte cared not a jot, so long 
as she got back to heaven. The La Valliere affair 
was in full flower when she arrived, and Madame 
and Armand de Guiche were cultivating their 
garden, too. Lauzun was at Court, Monsieur 
greeted her as his " lucky star " — and the King. . . 
The King, already wearying a little of the simple 
girl who " loved him for himself," cast an admiring 
eye on the Princesse de Monaco, now handsomer 
than ever. She was quite ready, but Lauzun was 
frantically jealous. There were scenes of every 



Where was the Key? 229 

kind ; there was the famous episode of his trampling 
on her hand with his high-heeled shoe ; there was 
another in her apartment, when the lover, kept 
waiting, dashed his fist through a mirror and 
departed, leaving the splintered glass as sole token 
of his visit. Finally, there was the trick which ruined 
all her hopes of being maitresse dklarie. Lauzun 
found out that the King was awaiting her ; he 
hid himself in a little room opposite the Royal 
" back-door." Up the backstairs came Charlotte, 
closely veiled, led by Bontemps, the felicitously- 
named Royal valet. Bontemps tried to open the 
door ; the King had put the key on the outside, 
as he always did on these little occasions. He 
had put it there, but it was not there when Bontemps 
felt for it. It was in Lauzun 's pocket. . . The 
valet and the lady trembled outside ; inside, the 
King was fuming. At last Bontemps ventured to 
knock. His Royal master came. Explanations, 
more searchings for the key — no key ! The lovers 
had to say au revoir ; there was no getting in or 
out at that door that night. They said it — but 
all was lost. The King never smiled on the 
Princesse de Monaco again. He did not even grant 
her the title of prince itranger for her husband. 
He had promised it, but this was the end of all 
things. Not for twenty years did the Grimaldis 
get the coveted rank — not till Charlotte's son Antoine 
married, in 1688, Marie de Lorraine-Armagnac, 
" of the Imperial House of Lorraine." 



230 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

Meanwhile our Prince was still running after his 
Mazarine. She was in England now, the star of 
Whitehall, the rival of " Madam Carwell." ^ A 
party was forming round her, Madam Carwell was 
fast losing ground ; Hortense almost had the Parlia- 
ment at her command, when some madness made 
her " take up " seriously with the Grimaldi ! Such 
a rivalry was bound to infuriate any man ; the 
humour even of Charles II broke down. He was 
angry enough to withdraw the lady's pension of 
^4,000. Elated by such an amazing triumph, 
Louis de Monaco paid it her instead. It was 
worth that to be the acknowledged victor on love's 
field of the most irresistible man of his period. 
" So ended the political career of the Duchesse de 
Mazarin " ; but for all that, Louis Grimaldi was 
soon cast off — and be sure that nobody in the 
French Court was surprised. One lady was, indeed, 
regretful : his wife. Not from sympathy — no. She 
foresaw her fate. He would be in a bad temper, 
and he would want her to wreak it on. Too- 
presageful Princess ! All happened just as she 
feared ; there was another abominable sojourn on 
the Rock. " Lovely as the place is, I felt nothing 
but a mortal ennui . . . and his jealousy mounted, 
mounted like a pyramid." She ran away at last — 
to Paris, of course ; and he, left behind, could 
think of nothing better to do than to get a list 

» Louise de Qu6rouailles, Duchess of Portsmouth ; in popular 
speech, " Madam Carwell," 



**Deep in the Gleaming Glass * * *** 231 

of her lovers (" it was long, for people gave me 
many more than I took ") and hang them in effigy 
all over the Principality. " More than half the 
men here at Court are decorating the highways 
of Monaco. How I've laughed, and many others 
with me — the King amongst them ! " Charlotte 
never saw the hanging lovers ; no power on earth 
could- now drive her back to her Prince and his 
Principality. But Lauzun had deserted her ; he 
was wooing La Grande Mademoiselle, whom from 
childhood Charlotte had detested more than anyone 
else she knew. " It was a presentiment, no doubt." 
. . . Long, long ago, an astrologer had foretold her 
early death. She died at thirty-nine of smallpox 
(1678), after eighteen years of marriage. She 
looked in her glass when she knew that the hour 
was come. Her face was black, disfigured, and 
swelled : " Cest ainsi que tout passe, tout change^ et 
quand on y songe bien^ ce nest -pas la peine de 
nattre" 



CHAPTER X 

The Lorraine alliance — The Wars of the Spanish Succession in 
France — The Goyon-Matignon marriage, and the extinction of 
the House of Grimaldi pur sang — A priceless brother-in-law, 
and some other relatives. 



CHAPTER X 

' I 'HE Prince of Monaco, weary of the incom- 
^ prehensible caprices of women, turned his 
attention after Charlotte's death to that still more 
puzzling commodity, the Law. For him, however, 
it presented a certain simplicity : was he not absolute 
in his own domain ? He soon promulgated a com- 
plete code, Gli Statuti del principato di Monaco^ dated 
in the year of his wife's death (1678). The penal 
laws of this masterpiece were severe on immorality ; 
hanging was in some cases the punishment for such 
offences as its maker had suffered from so often — 
even a naughty song, if it were very flagrant, might 
bring its author, publisher, and singer to the gallows. 
By this time, Louis was grown " as fat as a 
barrel, and had a great pointed stomach to the end 
of which he could not see, so that he often pushed 
people in front of him without knowing that he 
was doing so." Such is the merciless portrait 
drawn by Saint-Simon of that "fantastic, arrogant, 
avaricious Italian " whom he so oddly detested. 
There was something in the mere name of Grimaldi 
which could fill his pen with gall. When, in 1698, 
23s 



236 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

at the beginning of the Spanish Succession excite- 
ment, Louis XIV gave the embassy at Rome to the 
Prince of Monaco, Saint-Simon could not believe 
his ears. " He is not fit for affairs," he cried — and 
later : " With his absurd pretensions to the titles 
of Altesse and Monseigneur^ neither of which did he 
ever obtain, he injured the King's affairs at the 
Vatican." But other historians — including even our 
old friend, the freelance Rendu — grant to Louis 
Grimaldi some credit for the French triumph in 
1700, when by the will of Charles II of Spain, 
Louis XIV's grandson, the Due d'Anjou, succeeded 
(as Philip V) to the throne which is still occupied 
by the Bourbon dynasty. 

The new ambassador to the Vatican, on his 
arrival in 1698, began badly. He had always been 
prone to lose his head in prosperity ; this unex- 
pected compliment from the King of France swept 
him into the most unbridled and tasteless extrava- 
gance. The historic instance is that of the carriage- 
horses which were shod with pure silver — the shoes 
retained by but a single nail, so that they might 
the more easily be lost ! Everything was on the 
same vulgar lines, and the poor little Principality 
had to pay. Absolute there, he soon confiscated 
the taxes levied on the valuable olive-oil mills, 
ostensibly as a temporary arrangement, but it was a 
temporariness which lasted until the French Revolu- 
tion ; " and such an act," comments Rendu, " has 
only one name, in all countries and in all tongues." 



A Chastened Bear 237 

In 1700, after the death of Pope Innocent XII — 
quickly followed by that of the feeble Spanish 
monarch, Charles II, and the Bourbon accession — 
Louis Grimaldi got into trouble with the Vatican. 
The new Pope, Clement XI, showed small favour 
in the matter to the French Ambassador, active 
though that personage had been in his favourable 
election. M. de Monaco left Rome, and com- 
plained to the King. By Saint-Simon's account of 
this "Va'lni-affair," Louis XIV administered a tower- 
ing snub. " M. de Monaco was ordered to return 
instantly to Rome." Metivier, quite as prejudiced 
on the other side, affirms that the King warmly 
upheld the Prince, " but, as the Pope was newly 
elected, he thought well to be lenient with everyone 
concerned." That statement smacks strongly of 
the official dementi, and when the writer adds that 
the Royal letter to M. de Monaco rebuked him 
" only for his zeal," we are reminded of Talleyrand's 
imperishable counsel. Surtout, point de zele : did 
Louis XIV quote that, by intelligent anticipation } 
At any rate, the Va'lni-afFair may be said to have 
killed our poor bear from the Alps — it, and the 
ever-open sore of those unattainable titles, Altesse 
and Monseigneur. He died, much chastened, in 
1 70 1 — not quite fifty-eight years old ; and his son 
Antoine succeeded him. 



In 1688, ten years before his father's mission to 



238 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

Rome, Antoine, Due de Valentinois, had been 
married to Marie de Lorraine, daughter of the 
Comte d'Armagnac, at that time Grand Equerry to 
the King, and therefore known as " M. le Grand." 
The rank of prince itranger had then been at last 
accorded — much to the vexation of Saint-Simon. 
The thing, in his view, ought never to have been 
done, but if it was to be done, " if there had ever 
been a right moment in which to accord so strange 
a favour," it was surely when the Principality had 
first been thrown into the arms of France — that is, 
in the time of Honore II and Louis XIII. Saint- 
Simon's grumble lasts through many pages ; he 
found ever-new fleers as he wrote. " A good 
but too-numerous House ... it has furnished to 
the various European nations officers of every kind, 
totally without distinction except what was given 
them by those nations. They have even worn 
the robe in Provence," (that is, practised as lawyers), 
" which one can hardly believe that any of the 
other great Genoese Houses have done." ..." The 
possession of Monaco is their one distinction ; and 
its Princes have had no rank in Italy anyhow or 
anywhere, and consequently in no other country 
either, until, in 1688, the King made them Princes 
in France ! One may • certainly say that they've 
managed to make a good thing out of a barren 
rock and an orangery." And finally, in comment- 
ing on the marriage of Mademoiselle de Monaco 
with the Due d'Uzes, his most renowned gibe at 




From an engraving, after a painting by Mile, de Bresson. 
ANTOINE DE GRAMONT. 
p. 238] 



*' Telle'' 239 

the Grimaldis is brought off. " 'Tis the dominion 
of a rock from whose centre its sovereign can, so 
to speak, spit over his own boundaries." All this 
verve bilieuse because the Grimaldi ladies " had the 
tabouret" — that is, the right to be seated in the 
Queen's presence ; and because Altesse and Mon- 
seigneur might, by poor fools unversed in the 
utmost niceties of etiquette, be murmured, illicitly 
but ravishingly, in a thick Grimaldi ear ! 

The Due de Valentinois got very little else be- 
sides the much-discussed rank by his marriage. If 
Charlotte de Gramont had been dissipated, she had 
at least preserved some outward dignity ; Marie de 
Lorraine, exquisitely pretty, graceful, and intelligent 
though she was, had never had any to preserve. 
" She was born telle, and brought up to think no 
shame of it." Antoine soon realised his position. 
" His height and breadth had gained him the nick- 
name of Goliath " ; but even these charms left his 
Princess unmoved. There were horrible scandals ; 
Dangeau, in his cold, calm Journal, alludes to a 
confidence made " by a lady at Court ^ to her 
husband which has caused several lackeys to be 
dismissed, for her too-perfect candour impelled her 
to name her lovers." Weary already as he was 
of insults from the lady's family, this last insult 
from the lady herself drove Antoine to action. 
Madame de Valentinois was whipped away to 

I A note to the Journal by the Due de Luynes states that " the 
lady " was Madame de Valentinois. 



240 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

Monaco. Like Charlotte de Gramont, she loathed 
the sojourn there, and she was not so easily re- 
strained as had been that comparative innocent. 
She ran away, and from Paris put forth an abomin- 
able accusation against her father-in-law. " It was 
from his pursuit that she had been obliged at all 
costs to escape." 

Poor purblind Louis, " gros comme un muid'^ 
was more amazed than angry at first ; but it 
was not long before the full loathliness of his 
daughter-in-law's malice broke upon him. Then 
he declared that he would never see the woman 
again, never suffer her to be in the same place 
with him. Two years later came the offer of 
the embassy to the Vatican, and we may perhaps 
suspect some wire-pulling from the religious 
party at Court. For Marie de Lorraine, under 
the protection of her laughter-loving family, was 
brilliantly enjoying herself there, while, sequestered 
at Monaco, were two mortified gentlemen, acutely 
conscious of their heirless heritage. Antoine, his 
indignant father safely gone, demanded his wife's 
presence. At first he was derided, but the 
d'Armagnacs got anxious when the Archbishop 
of Paris interfered. Marie was brought back 
to Monaco. But " she gave her husband only 
daughters," and be sure she realised fully what that 
meant. Through her daughter it was that the heri- 
tage of the Grimaldis passed to the ancient Breton 
House of Goyon-Matignon — that the Grimaldis pur 



Miserable Marriages 241 

sang ceased, so far as that branch was concerned, to 
exist. If Marie de Lorraine had wished to be 
revenged upon a family which had harmed her in 
no wise, but which she had harmed in every way 
known to woman, she was revenged indeed when, 
in 17 1 5, she married her eldest daughter to the 
Comte de Thorigny/ 

Meanwhile there had been another unhappy 
marriage in the family. Anne-Hippolyte, one of 
Charlotte de Gramont's daughters and Antoine's sister, 
was wedded in 1596 to Charles de Crussol, Due 
d'Uz^s, Premier Peer of France. The ages were 
very disproportioned. He was only eighteen, " and 
Mademoiselle de Monaco was thirty-four or five, 
and looked it." But even Saint-Simon (after the 
inevitable jeer at a Grimaldi) speaks compassionately 
of the unhappy lady. " She was a woman of merit 
and virtue, who deserved a better fate," for the 
Due d'Uzes was one of the most detestable men of 
his period. Her lot was bitterer " even than that of 
very unhappy wives," and she died, four years after 
her marriage (in 1700) of an ulcer in the throat, 
leaving no children. 



From the domestic disasters which surrounded 
him, Antoine de Valentinois, like his father, took 
refuge in soldiering. Already, in the very earliest 
years of his marriage, he had distinguished himself 

* See Note at end of chapter. 

16 



242 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

— had fought at Fleurus in 1690 ("the greatest 
victory ever won by Louis XIV "), had been at the 
Siege of Namur in 1692, and there gained personal 
notice from the King, who conducted the siege him- 
self. Later, in 1705 (when he was Prince of 
Monaco), came France's struggle to retain that 
Spanish crown which had so wonderfully fallen on 
her head five years before. The Duke of Savoy, 
now allied with Austria against her, drew the 
attention of the Emperor (Charles VI) to the valu- 
able position of Monaco. Antoine Grimaldi, long 
before Victor-Amadeus II publicly broke with France, 
had suspected him of this design, and had indeed, 
by a timely warning to the French general, Vendome, 
brought about the disarming of the Piedmontese 
troops, which Savoy had intended to lead in the 
Austrian army (1703). This had precipitated the 
rupture with France. Now, in 1 705, came the French 
attack upon Nice — the frightful sufferings and 
devastation, the furious bombardment, the fall of the 
bravely-defended town. . . Monaco, during this 
horrible period, proved a useful arsenal for the 
French. Antoine, who could, by the terms of the 
Treaty of P^ronne, have remained neutral, instead 
embraced ardently the French cause ; and all French 
historians lavish praise upon him. He gained a 
solid advantage in the same year, when Louis XIV, 
then master of the long-disputed territory of La 
Turbia, acknowledged the Prince of Monaco's claim, 
and separated the village from the comti of Nice, 



An Awful Winter II43 

uniting it " in perpetuity " to the Principality of 
Monaco/ 

But with 1706 French fortunes changed. At the 
battle of Turin, fought in September of that year, 
France and Spain lost all advantages gained over 
Austria. The great Prince Eugene of Savoy and 
Victor-Amadeus came out of the bloody fight with 
crowns of glory, and " Piedmont was, as it were, the 
tomb of the French and Spanish armies." Louis XIV 
signed a treaty (1707) by which the French troops 
entirely evacuated Italy. France still held, however, 
the comti of Nice, and peace could by no means 
ensue until Victor-Amadeus had retrieved that leaf 
of the artichoke. Warfare dragged on. Antoine I 
never flagged in his loyalty to France ; he sacrificed 
revenues, personal possessions, jewels, plate — all to 
preserve Monaco, " cette sentinelle perdue au hord de la 
meVy' for France, who, drained by the incessant 
military expeditions of the reign, could bear no 
smallest part of the cost. And in 1 709, to put the 
final test to his devotion, came one of the most 
desperate winters which the region has ever known. 
To this day its awful rigours are remembered. On 
the night between the 13th- 14th of February, the 
vines, lemon-trees, orange-trees, and olives perished 
before the very eyes of the people, for " it is their 
habit to sit up through a frosty night, eagerly watch- 

* " Perpetuity," however, is a word easier in the writing than in 
the keeping. In 1713, by the Treaty of Utrecht, Turbia reverted to 
the Savoys. 



244 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

ing the effect on their trees, ruin being inevitable 
if the frost attacks them. . ." Not till 1713 did 
Antoine Grimaldi know relief from anxiety. Then 
the Treaty of Utrecht ended this chapter of the 
Spanish Succession conflict — -"that very pivot of 
Louis XIV's reign." The possession of the Spanish 
throne was guaranteed to the Bourbons ; Austria 
renounced all claims ; France agreed that her crown 
and that of Spain should never be united. Savoy 
retrieved Nice and the " for-ever-separated " La 
Turbia, his claims to Spain (in default of Philip V's 
male heirs), were recognised, and he obtained the 
Kingdom of Sicily.-^ He put in also a claim to the 
long-coveted Monaco, but this was peremptorily 
refused, and Antoine's sovereignty was recognised 
and confirmed. 

Savoy, now King of Sicily, had still a stone in his 
sling for our Goliath. He claimed again the homage 
for the ii-i2ths of Mentone and the whole of 
Roccabruna, which had been refused him by the 
Grimaldis ever since the Will of Claudine in 15 10. 
Antoine resisted hotly, but the question was at last 
submitted to the arbitration of England and France. 
Judgment was given for Savoy in 17 14. The Prince 
of Monaco submitted, but he managed to have the 
detested ceremony shorn of " all that could hurt his 
pride." It took place near Turin in 1716, and the 
vassalage was continued until 1841. 

' In 1720, by the Treaty of London, the Duke of Savoy exchanged 
Sicily for Sardinia. 



Husband'Hunting 245 

Antoine I had had only daughters, as we have 
already learnt, by his wretched marriage with Marie 
de Lorraine. The Grimaldi heritage descended in 
the female line, by the will of John I (1454) ; but 
that will had also ordained that the heiress should 
marry only a member of the House. There were 
plenty of cousins to choose from, for, as Saint-Simon 
said, the Grimaldis were " too numerous." In Spain, 
Naples, Genoa, collateral branches flourished, but 
gradually the brilliantly-allied Monaco Princes had 
come to look upon these gentry as mere "pro- 
vincials." One of them would never do. The 
brilliant alliances had, it was true, brought little else 
but glitter into the family — happiness had con- 
spicuously kept away, and so had money. The 
latter commodity had now become an imperative need. 
Louis I, by his wanton extravagance, Antoine by his 
wanton devotion to France, had emptied the Grimaldi 
coiFers : Louise-Hippolyte, heiress to the Princi- 
pality, would have to make a mercenary marriage. 

But where was Antoine to find a rich and high- 
born husband who would give up his own name, 
arms, and liveries for those of Grimaldi, (and this was 
an irrefragable condition), yet obtain nothing but a 
wife in return — for though Louise-Hippolyte would 
be Princess, he would not be Prince ? Something 
more must be put into the bargain — and Antoine 
bethought him of the Duchy-Peerage of Valentinois.^ 

^ The Duchy alone would descend to a woman (see ante) ; the 
Peerage, not thus descending, would die out with Antoine, unless 
this was done. 



246 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

He applied to Louis XIV for power to divest him- 
self of the title, and present his daughter's future 
husband with it on the wedding-day. Louis XIV 
assented — and this favour was so great that Saint- 
Simon could not contain himself. Rendu remarks 
upon the "puerilities and sarcasms" which pepper 
his chapter upon the Goyon-Matignon marriage : 
" He details every incident, every intrigue ! " But 
on the other side of the shield, the Matignon 
renunciations caused widespread irritation. In 
the Marquise de Crequy's Souvenirs we read that 
the Breton nobility considered the arrangement 
** most mortifying and abominably unnatural, for in 
that part of the world the old Celtic name of Goyon 
is like a clarion." And there were restrictions 
and conditions, too — for if Antoine should still have 
male children, the eldest of these was to succeed 
to the Duchy-Peerage, Louise-Hippolyte's husband 
retaining the dignity only for his life. The husband's 
heirs would, in that case, resume their father's 
original names, titles, arms, and liveries. 

Despite all these drawbacks, the Duchy-Peerage was 
plainly an attractive bribe, for suitors soon abounded. 
All were well-born, but at first none was rich enough. 
Much was to be demanded from the chosen man — 
he was to pay the other girl's dowry, to setde all 
Grimaldi debts, and to compensate Antoine's brother 
Francois, Abbot of Monaco, for ceding his eventual 
rights to the Duchy ! The Comte de Roye, the 
Marquis de Chatillon, Prince Charles of Lorraine, 



The Wondrous Suitor 247 

the Comte de Roncy, were the first lot. From these 
Antoine selected de Roncy. But alas ! Antoine's 
suffrages alone were not sufficient. Madame de 
Monaco's were as necessary, and Madame de Monaco, 
glad of the chance to thwart him, flatly refused them. 
Louise-Hippolyte, too, declared that she would sign 
nothing which her mother had not signed. This 
was in May 1713 ; by August 17 14, de Roncy 
had retired. "The quarrel," Dangeau tells us, 
" between M. and Mme, de Monaco was bitter " ; 
but we must concede to Marie de Lorraine the 
possession of one strong argument — de Roncy's 
fortune was very inconsiderable. Thus, when in 
1 71 5 another suitor came forward, she saw a good 
opening for an " I-told-you-so." Had it not been 
well to wait ! For this was indeed the very suitor 
of a matchmaker's dream. 

He was Jacques-Fran9ois-L6onor de Goyon- 
Matignon, Comte de Thorigny, heir of an in- 
credibly ancient Breton House, which was allied with 
the Bourgognes, Rohans, Luxembourgs, the Houses 
of Brittany, Savoy, and Bourbon, which was more- 
over very rich indeed — and of which he was the 
only son ! Was it possible that so dazzling a young 
man was ready to drop name, arms, and liveries and 
take those of Grimaldi instead, for the sake of the 
Valentinois title, the problematical succession to 
the sovereignty of Monaco, and — last and least — 
the bright eyes of Louise-Hippolyte ? Amazing 
as it seems, Jacques-Fran9ois-LeQnor was ready. 



248 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

He dropped and took names, arms, and liveries, and 
he and Louise-Hippolyte were married at Monaco 
on October 24, 17 15, six weeks after the death of 
Louis XIV. Five years afterwards, a son was born. 

The sparkling Marquise de Crequy, " wittiest and 
most original of the women of her time," visited her 
cousin, Louise-Hippolyte, in 1721. She was the 
sixteen-yeared bride of Louis-Marie-Charles-Arras- 
Adrien, Marquis de Cr6quy, known as Louis-le- 
Debonnaire ; and both were connected with the 
Grimaldis, as the Duchesse de Valentinois was solici- 
tous to remind them. Their reception was effusive ; 
a salvo of thirteen guns was fired in their honour. 
The Marquis, much amused, demanded of his hos- 
pitable cousin, " A qui elle en avait ? " — which seems 
translatable only into " Whom are you getting at ? " 
She answered (and it is the solitary verbatim report 
we have of a Grimaldi-lady) : " Leave me alone, 
Louis-le-Debonnaire ! Wasn't my grandmother's 
grandmother of your House ? All my good looks 
live in the Crequy quarter of my face — and if you 
say a word more, I'll have, on your departure, 
twenty-one guns fired for my neighbour of Jerusalem 
and Armenia." 

This latter object of her gay sarcasm was, more 
soberly, the Duke of Savoy, Victor- Amadeus II. 
He was now seventy, and "as knubbly as a bag 
of nuts " ; yet he had dared to fall desperately in 
love with this delicious Duchesse de Valentinois. 
He liked to arrive at Monaco quite unexpectedly, 



Lucky Lisieux 249 

" so as to give her a pleasant surprise," but roguish 
Louise-Hippolyte, who loved her young husband 
dearly and thought Savoy a bore, would have him 
watched from the moment of his arrival at Nice, so 
that as soon as he passed the frontier of the Princi- 
pality, all the Monegascan batteries might roar the 
tedious news to heaven ! ... So humorous a lady 
must have immensely enjoyed her brother-in-law, 
the Abbe Leon de Matignon, (later Bishop of 
Lisieux), who was the Sir Boyle Roche of France, 
The Crequy Souvenirs abound in anecdotes of this 
notorious ass. Lisieux is the scene of two of the 
funniest — Lisieux on the day of his arrival there, 
when his uncle, not he, was Bishop. Leon was shown 
the cathedral, and told that the English had built it. 
He wrinkled critical eyebrows. " Yes. I saw at 
once that it hadn't been done here." Later in the 
day, he was found superintending the arrangements 
for his instalment. Among them, were great heaps 
of straw beneath his windows. " That's what we do 
in Paris," he explained, " to dull the noise of the 
traffic." 

"But there's very little noise of traffic here," 
observed the Bishop. 

" No — but don't you hate the noise of bells .? I 
do, and would do anything to deaden it." 

His success in every vein was unfailing. Louise- 
Hippolyte's first baby arrived while her husband 
was with the army. L6on, much elated, sat down 
to write the good news to Jacques. His letter 



250 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

was finished, the courier was booted and spurred, 
when suddenly he remembered that he had forgotten 
to find out the infant's sex. There was no time for 
inquiries — L6on added a postscript : " In my joy 
and anxiety, I have quite forgotten to find out 
whether I'm its uncle or its aunt." 

These instances are masterly enough, but there 
remains a speech which has achieved immortality. 
In his poultry-yard at Lisieux were some guinea- 
fowl, which his housekeeper sold at the market price. 
•* And why," he demanded, " didn't you say they 
were small parroquets ? They'd have fetched four 
pistoles each." 

The housekeeper answered in her Breton patois 
that Monseigneur's guinea-fowl did not talk. 

*' Well," he cried angrily, " and if they don't 
talk, ihey think the more.'' " Hence the proverb," 
says the Marquise, writing her Souvenirs many and 
many a year after Leon's silver tongue was still. 

There were Grimaldi, as well as Matignon, rela- 
tives to laugh at. There was handsome, simple 
Andrea Grimaldi, " tall, with a fine pale skin and 
masses of curly black hair," who lived at Rome. 
He was a close connection of the Marquise, but she, 
unlike her grandmother, Julie-Th6rese Grimaldi, 
Marquise - Douairiere de Froulay,^ thought the 

' " I have already told you that I got into the habit of calling her 
grandmother, though she was only second wife of my grandfather, 
Philippe-Charles, Marquis de Froulay. ... In any case, however, 
she was closely related to us, for she was niece to the Marechal de 
Tess6, the eldest of our family." {Souvenirs, vol. i.) 



Handsome Cousin Andrea 251 

Grimaldis as fair game as everybody else. " Grand- 
mother would have been surprised and hurt that 
anyone could make fun of a Grimaldi — though it 
would have been quite natural if it had been a 
Spinola, Doria, or Fieschi." Of handsome Andrea the 
fun made was, however, almost tender. Andrea was 
a Romantic. He had been Doge of Genoa, but that 
had rather bored him ; and indeed the Senate of his 
native city was the grievance-maker of his life. For 
Andrea had a dream. His dream was of France— 
oh, to see it ! But the Senate did not permit Genoese 
nobles to leave Italy, and so the poor curly-haired 
handsome fellow had, at Genoa, spent his days in 
riding to the extreme limits of the frontier at every 
point of the compass, merely that he might gaze 
lovingly, longingly, at the Other One's sea and 
mountains. At last he left the cruel city; "the 
open-air captive put himself to prison in Rome." 
There he found two uncles — one a horrible old 
cardinal, a miser, " the sort of man who dares not 
eat lest he might want to drink, the sort of man 
who keeps his fish-bones " ; the other, " a devil of 
a prelate, whose craze was smuggling — to such an 
extent that it had to be placarded in the streets that 
nothing was to be sold to Monseigneur Imperiali, 
nor might anything be bought from him either." 
Pasquinades and lampoons whizzed incessantly round 
the names of these worthies, and Andrea, cured of 
moonsick dreams, would roar with laughter, for " he 
was the most natural, simple creature," says his 



252 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

affectionately patronising Cr^quy-cousin. No doubt 
she and Louise-Hippolyte rejoiced, since everything 
was food for mirth, in having such an odd collection 
of relatives. 



Antoine I died in 1731, and was sincerely regretted 
— we have Rendu's testimony. " He was the only 
Grimaldi who shared with Honord II the rare 
privilege of being truly popular and truly mourned" ; 
so Goliath made a good end for the male Grimaldis 
pur sang. Henceforth, we find the freelances writ- 
ing of " the Goyon-Matignons, called Grimaldis." 
But before they came to reign, a female was to show 
what the distaff-side could do for the honour of the 
name. Louise-Hippolyte was Princess now ; and 
Jacques-Fran9ois-L6onor found disconcertingly that 
the Monegascans were more conservative than 
Antoine had guessed. For, remembering the will 
of John I, which ordained that an heiress to the 
Principality should marry into her own family, they 
refused to recognise the Goyon-Matignon as their 
chief. To the Princess's authority alone would they 
bow ; and evidently the husband was much offended, 
for he instantly " retired to Paris," and Louise ruled 
her State all by herself. Quite maternal in her 
gentle solicitude for her subjects' well-being, she 
soon came to be called la bonne princesse^ but her 
sweet sway lasted only a year. Then she died, aged 
only thirty-four, leaving several children, of whom 



Two Little Houses 253 

the eldest, Honore-Camille-L6onor, was eleven years 
old. 



Note on Marie de Lorraine. — At the end of the 
Rue de Lorraine in the town of Monaco, " one 
notices" (says Abel Rendu) "a charming little 
building with a charming little garden. Both were 
designed by the beautiful Marie de Lorraine, wife 
of Antoine L Here she condemned herself to a 
solitary retreat when life together had become in- 
supportable for both — and with good reason. She 
was extraordinarily fond of it, and called it 
Mon Desert^ which name it still bears." (Rendu's 
book was published in 1867.) Metivier, comment- 
ing on the same " little building," tells us that quite 
close to it was another nid coquet^ which Antoine, the 
husband, had had built for " a charming person," a 
Monegascan Montespan. . . " The elegance of the 
Giardinetio" — as this house was called — "explains 
the retreat of Mon Desert." 



CHAPTER XI 

Honore III and Catherine di Brignole-Sala. 



CHAPTER XI 

FOR ten years the hitherto rejected "Goyon- 
Matignon " ruled for his son Honor6 III 
in Monaco. By the end of three — in 1734, that 
is — he had gained the magistrates' confidence so 
completely that they voluntarily signed a declaration 
acknowledging him as Sovereign Prince. He then 
adopted the style Giacomo, Principe di Monaco^ but 
on Honore's twenty-first birthday in 1741, this was 
dropped, and Jacques-Fran^ois-Leonor became again 
the Due de Valentinois. He had seen much warfare 
under that name, had been at the Sieges of Font- 
arabia, St. Sebastian, and others during the dispute 
between Austria and Spain (known as the war of the 
Quadruple Alliance^) in 1718-20 : that hateful war 
which was ended by the Treaty of London in the 
latter year, and after which " Spain lapsed into proud 
decay." Only one clause in the treaty affected 
Monaco,^ and that not for many years to come : it 

^ The allies were England, France, Austria, and Holland against 
Spain. 

■^ Antoine I was then alive. He obtained a promise of neutrality 
from both sides, so that Monaco as a State took no part in the 
dispute. His son-in-law fought as a private person in the French 
army. 

257 17 



258 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

was the exchange, by the Savoys, of the Kingdom of 
Sicily for that of Sardinia. 

In 1740, just before Honore's majority, the War 
of the Austrian Succession broke out. This was 
the disappointing outcome of Charles VI's famous 
Pragmatic Sanction, which he had promulgated in 
1 73 1 in favour of his daughter, Maria-Theresa, the 
future mother of Marie-Antoinette. It secured the 
unity of Austria under Charles's male or female 
descendants "in perpetuity." All the Powers except 
France, Spain, and Sardinia had accepted it ; and 
after the War of the Polish Succession in 1733-6, 
these recalcitrants had fallen into line. But in 
1740, on Charles's death, all the jealousies flamed 
forth as fiercely as if such a thing as the Sanction had 
never been. By 1744, the turmoil had reached our 
region ; bloody battles were fought at Villafranca 
and La Turbia, which latter place had belonged to 
Savoy since the Treaty of Utrecht in 171 3. The 
Principality figured as France's friend, but took no 
active part in the warfare immediately around it, 
for not only had Honore III guarded his neutrality, 
but he himself, as a private person, was fighting for 
France with Maurice de Saxe in Flanders. 

In 1 74 1, after presentation at Court, he had gone 
to join that " brilliant innovator," who had been in 
the field since he was twelve years old — when he ran 
away from home to the French army " without tell- 
ing his mother," as one biographer na'fvely informs 
posterity. Maurice's original military views were 



'' Chantecler ! *' 259 

assuredly well championed by events. Fontenoy in 
1745 may have been "a victory more of circum- 
stances than of his genius" ; but it was followed 
by Raucoux in 1746, by Laufeld in 1747, by the 
Siege of Bergen-op-Zoom in the same year — until in 
1748 the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle put an end to the 
long rivalry between France and Austria. Despite 
Maurice de Saxe's triumphs, this Peace greatly dis- 
credited France. 

Two Grimaldis fought at Fontenoy — Honore and 
his brother Maurice. The latter was severely 
wounded, and immortalised for it by no less a 
personage than Voltaire, for we are told that the line 
in the Pome de Fontenoy — 

^^ Monaco perd son sang, et V amour en soupire^' 

applies to this young man. It awakens a curiosity 
which we have not elsewhere discovered anything to 
satisfy. . . Honore, in his turn, was wounded at 
Raucoux. It was on the night before this great 
battle that Justine Favart,^ an actress engaged in the 
theatrical company which attended de Saxe through- 
out this campaign, came forward to announce the next 
day's programme in these delightful terms : 

*' Messieurs, demain, reldche a cause de la hataille ; 
apr^s-demain, nous aurons I'honneur de vous donner 
Le Coq du Village.'" 

Honore's horse was killed under him in this 

1 She was later the victim of one of Maurice de Saxe's most 
characteristic rascalities. 



26o The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

fight. His regiment had so distinguished itself 
during the campaign that after the Peace in 1748, 
it was given six Crosses of St. Louis, and its 
Colonel, the Prince of Monaco, was raised to the 
rank of markhal de camp. This was a dazzling 
promotion, for Honord was only twenty-eight years 
years old. . . In 1751 his father died, and he 
succeeded to the Valentinois title. 



Honore was thirty-one, and he was not yet 
married. This had caused many searchings of heart 
to " the Goyon-Matignon." Was his posterity, 
after all the sacrifices, not to retain the prize } He 
had been an indefatigable matchmaker for his son 
ever since that son's twentieth birthday. There had 
then sprung up hopes of an alliance with the 
Maines, but that had fallen through, and the Due 
de Bouillon's daughter, Louise-Henriette de la Tour 
d'Auvergne, had been thought of. This affair got 
much further ; all was settled, only the signing of the 
contract remained — when suddenly Honore kicked 
over the traces. He said it was " on account of her 
father's obstinacy" ; but the angry Due de Valentinois 
felt sure it was on account of his — for this Grimaldi- 
trait was already much developed. Honor6 was shut 
up in the . citadel at Arras for several months, as a 
punishment ; he came out, " much embittered, and 
deeply disgusted with the idea of marriage." It was 
fifteen years before he thought of it again. 




Photo by Braun Clement & Cie., Paris, after the painting by Chardin. 

MADAME GEOFFRIN. 
p. 260] 



The Little Daughter 261 

But at thirty (1750) he fell in love with a beauti- 
ful Italian Marchesa whom he met at Versailles. 
This was Anna, Marchesa di Brignole-Sala, daughter 
of the great Genoese House of Balbi, and renowned 
all over Europe for her loveliness. She was very 
gifted, very cultured also ; Paris talked not only of 
her looks but of her brains. At the salons of Madame 
GeofFrin, of the Marquise du Deffand, she was eagerly 
welcomed — so long as she did not insist on bringing 
her husband with her. He was dull, uncultivated, 
the merest of maris. Anna was acquiescent : nobody 
could want the Marchese, she clearly saw. He 
must stay at home, and console himself with the 
one little daughter, born in 1739 — Marie-Catherine, 
likely to be pretty some day, but, at eleven, rather 
uninteresting for any length of companionship. 

Marie-Catherine, timidly admiring at a distance 
a lovely but unaccountable Mamma, poured out 
all the treasure of her sensitive little heart upon 
the despised Marchese. " Never was there any 
one so kind, so tender. I can never love him 
enough ! " ^ They would cling together after a 
scene, and " cry a great deal " — for Anna made 
scenes and tears incessantly. She always had made 
them, but in 1750 the scenes, the tears, took an 
inexpressible note of bitterness. . . At eleven we 
do not understand much, but we notice that a 
gentleman, the Prince of Monaco, comes very, very 
often to see Mamma, and that " scenes " for us 

^ Lettres de la Princesse de Monaco, in the Archives at Monaco. 



262 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

and Papa are frequently the consequence of his 
visits. 

The liaison, indeed, was by that time beyond 
doubt. Anna, ardent and imperious, cared sincerely 
for her lover ; he, " d'un caractere omhrageux et 
sournois" cared more for himself than for anyone or 
anything on earth. All the egotism and tyranny of 
the Grimaldis were his ; *' he was hard under a 
silky exterior, obstinate, tortuous, ambitious." Most 
people disliked him. He was known to be brave, 
but bravery was his only virtue — and, as we know, 
Versailles took bravery for granted in everybody. 
Nevertheless, brilliant Anna Balbi had lost her heart. 
She did not lose her head ; " she practised some 
decency, rare in those days, in hiding her passion " ; 
the Marchese di Brignole-Sala was not the open 
scoiF that most husbands were. Being so Gothic, it 
was necessary to throw dust in his eyes — and in truth 
" he never wholly knew the extent of his unhappi- 
ness." In 1754, Honore joined Anna at Genoa. 
The Marchese could not get him out of the house ; 
there were resounding quarrels, but no public scan- 
dal, for the little daughter, fourteen now, was used 
as a "third" during the frequent visits. What 
could the husband say, if Marie-Catherine were so 
often present when the Prince was with Mamma ? 

Perhaps Mamma had not noticed how pretty 
Marie-Catherine was growing. Tall, slender, supple, 
graceful inexpressibly ; golden Italian hair, deep blue 
eyes with an " atmosphere " around them, delicate 



The Promise 263 

rose-leaf skin . . . Mamma may not have noticed ; 
but in a year or two, on one of the many visits to 
Paris, Paris noticed. Paris said, " She is as lovely as 
an angel." At the salons, all eyes were now fixed 
on the daughter instead of on the mother. Madame 
GeofFrin's daughter (Madame de La Ferte-Imbault) 
was a close friend of the simple, modest maiden's, 
who was so lovely, so high-born, and so overwhelm- 
ingly, incredibly wealthy — a fortune of two millions. 
Every one was talking of her, and soon Anna 
perceived that Marie-Catherine was too great a 
success. She ceased to take her out ; she would 
not suffer the rivalry of sixteen — let other people 
look after the child ! 

... I hesitate here ; the tale is too ugly. . . 
How had it come about, the rivalry that indeed was 
insufferable } Was it in those days at the " Red 
Palace " in Genoa, or after the first Parisian 
triumphs, that such a thing had developed .'' There 
is no record of the horrible wooing ; all we have 
is a little yellowing letter (which de S6gur, her 
biographer, has held, " not without emotion," in his 
fingers) — a letter in a trembling, childish script : 

" I promise and vow to M. le Prince de Monaco 
that I will never marry anyone but him, no matter 
what may happen. Paris, November 29, 1755. 
Signed, Marie-Catherine di Brignole." 

Sixteen — and that promise ! . . . How it came 



264 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

to Anna Balbi's knowledge we are not told. Her 
fury was ungovernable ; small wonder that it was. 
Jealousy, we may do her the justice to suppose, 
was not the only motive ; such an outrage would 
leave few feelings unmoved. But, whether by her 
influence or not, the Prince wavered — finally, in 
1756, gave up any present intention of marrying 
Marie-Catherine, and sought the hand of Mile, de 
La Valliere.^ Again it fell through ; and in the 
failure, Honore III felt many a cold shoulder at 
that Court of Versailles where the Grimaldis were 
so persistently unpopular. . . At first Anna Balbi 
had laughed a good deal at the Court-snubbings. 
Then, for some reason, she experienced a "change 
of heart " ; she began to feel sorry for le pauvre 
enfant. Next, with that subtly-chosen phrase, a 
maternal solicitude manifested itself. Finally, 
Anna was hand-in-glove with her Jils bien-aime^ 
and the marriage with Marie-Catherine became 
her chief object in life. Since she had been won 
over, there was little hope that the girl would 
escape ; the father might fight, but would scarcely 
win. He fought hard. The full infamy was not 
assured to him, but he knew enough to feel a 
shame, horror, and indignation which left him almost 
unhinged. Anna soon had occasion to write to 
her Jils bien-aimi : " I believe he's going crazy, 

' This was the granddaughter of Louise de La VaUiere by her 
son Louis-C6sar, Due de La Valli^re. The mother was a Crussol 
d'Uz^s, so she was a connection of the Grimaldis already. 



Her Answer 265 

and has been for a long time." He sent insulting 
letters to the suitor — so insulting that that tortuous 
personage feigned to withdraw in high offence. It 
was a feint merely ; soon the thing began again. 
The father was in agony. Even if there were 
nothing else, the man was detestable — and he was 
twenty years older than the dear daughter. But 
Anna wore him down. Mistress of fury, she was 
mistress of " nagging " too ; and the man has not 
been born who comes victorious from that ladies' 
battle. One day, the Marchese sent for Marie- 
Catherine, and implored her — poor helpless, fond 
Papa ! — implored her to tell him exactly what she 
desired. . . It was all over then. Marie-Catherine, 
seventeen and goodness knows what besides, said that 
she wanted to marry the Prince of Monaco. Was she 
afraid of Anna, too } or was she afraid to break a 
promise .'' or did she like the idea of being a Sovereign 
Princess } Whatever it were. Papa had his answer ; 
and he and she " cried together for a long time." 

Even then, the preliminary troubles were not 
done with. Honore's " insatiable avidity " found 
fault with the marriage-contract ; Anna was angry 
and scenes began again — this time with the bride- 
groom-elect. He kept quite cool, but " all his 
terms were accepted in the end." . . . They were 
married — he, by proxy, as being too high in rank 
to go to Genoa — on June 15, 1757. Then the 
bride set out in a galley to meet her husband ; 
but as they reached the shore, etiquette, now on 



266 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

the Brignole-Sala side, intervened. Anna de- 
clared that the Prince must come on board and 
take off his bride. The Prince's dignity forbade 
him to go farther than the landing-stage. Passion- 
ate discussion, stormy weather, little sea-sick bride, 
fuming Mamma, wretched Papa, detestable and 
inflexible bridegroom — what was to be done ? 
Marie-Catherine might still have been rescued — 
for a rupture was imminent — had not a too 
ingenious Balbi-uncle devised a bridge of boats, 
whereon bride and bridegroom could meet half-way ! 
So all vanities were saved — and all else was lost. 

She must have been a silly-sweet creature at this 
time. Candid and timid, sensitive, eager for love, 
ready to be all his . . . yes! but without character, 
without humour. Read a letter, written in 1760, 
when the husband (who tyrannised her relentlessly) 
was away : — " I do have my hair curled so that I 
may look nice, but I only care for looking nice 
when you are here. I promised a journal of what 
1 do ; as for one of what I think, you can easily 
make it for yourself: I think only of you." 

Sweet, no doubt ; but she was twenty-one and 
a mother — her son, Honore-Charles-Maurice, was 
born in 1758. . . When in later years she looked 
back upon this period, she recognised the error into 
which she had fallen, and quoted bitterly, in another 
letter to the husband, a proverb new to me but 
unforgettable : ^^ If you make yourself into a sheep ^ 
the wolf will eat you,"" Docility cloying as this 



''The Man^^ 267 

is truly dangerous diet for any tyrant, whether 
man or woman ; all the more so because, if the 
slave be not an imbecile, it cannot last. Marie- 
Catherine derived from her intelligent mother as 
well as from her amiable father, and in the very 
year (1760) of that silly letter, her mother's blood 
began to stir in her. It may have been because 
the husband was away, and she had leave to think, 
to breathe freely. . . Whatever the reason, when 
at the end of the year he summoned her to Paris, 
and she came, he found in his wife no longer 
a slavish schoolgirl, but a clear-eyed, free-souled 
woman. That was a kind of wife he did not want. 
Surprise soon changed to annoyance — annoyance to 
violence — and then, with her wonted promptitude, 
destiny produced The Man. 

Our Princess of Monaco was presented at the 
end of 1 76 1, and made a sensation. She was a 
peerless beauty now, and her grace was incom- 
parable. Troops of admirers followed her every 
movement. She smiled serenely on all, and smiled 
serenely only — until their ranks were joined by 
Louis-Joseph de Bourbon-Conde, Prince of the 
Blood, twenty-five, a widower, *' most popular," a 
little shy and reserved, not handsome but attractive, 
despite his red hair and his blind eye (a family 
defect) "that no one would have noticed." . . . On 
Conde, the Princess of Monaco soon learned to 
smile — not serenely. 

The husband did all he could to help. Jealous 



268 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

of every other man, he was not jealous of Conde. 
He took Marie-Catherine to all the festivities at 
famed Chantilly, and the host was discreet : he 
flattered le mart, and le mart fawned on him. Other 
things, moreover, had begun to interest Honore ; 
on his Norman estate of Thorigny, he had taken 
up horse-breeding. Soon that became his passion. 
He got " horsey," he dressed like a groom, (so long 
since did men exhibit that recurrent craze for 
imitating their servants' attire!), he wrote curt 
letters by his secretary to the adulated beauty in 
Paris. . . Has it not all been recounted a thou- 
sand times, in all ages, in all forms ? Platonics at 
first, but their names in every mouth, and anony- 
mous letters raining upon the horsey gentleman at 
Thorigny ; a rush to Paris, a frightful scene, a 
terrified Princess ; then, " a long torture of espionage." 
In 1767, great doings at Chantilly, the Prince and 
Princess of Monaco among the guests, "but his 
jealousy made the visit an agony." He nearly 
killed her, he threatened to throw her into the 
moat ; ^ she offered to " give up " Conde, told the 
husband he might open her letters ; then at last 
flamed forth, and wrote the letter with the proverb 
already cited. Home then — and hell. Mistresses 
openly kept, a horrible fracas at the theatre, when 
the Prince was hissed out by the indignant audi- 
ence ; but Marie-Catherine, grown desperate, had 

1 Deposition des temoins : Premiere plainte de la Princesse de 
Monaco. — Archives Nationales. 



She Goes — For Ever 269 

set tongues wagging too. . ? In 1769 she left 
her husband's house in Paris, and went to a 
convent at Mans. The mother then intervened 
and patched up a truce, but this merely pre- 
cipitated the inevitable, for the Prince of Monaco 
now declared that he would leave France for ever, 
and shut his wife up in the Principality. She 
should never leave the place again. That was the 
end. He was absolute in Monaco ; his wife would 
be defenceless — Monaco would be not only a prison, 
but almost certainly a tomb. She resolved to appeal 
to France ; she lodged the Premiere plainte de la 
Princesse de Monaco^ putting in France's hands 
" her liberty and her life," and at eleven o'clock 
in the morning of July 26, 1770, she left her 
home again, this time never to return. She went 
first to a convent at Bellechasse ; next day, moved 
to the Assumption Convent, and stayed there till 
January 16, 1771. 

While she was there, French history was in the 
making. In December, 1770, came the famous 
Suspension of the Parliament of Paris— firstfruits 
of the Dubarry's forced campaign against the Due 
de Choiseul. Conde, like all Condes, was mixed 
up in the movement against the monarchy ; they 
were Princes of the Blood, yet " seditious by birth." 
This one had publicly embraced the cause of the 
Parliament (so detested by Louis XV), had exiled 

^ Horace Walpole, in a letter to Madame du Deffand, calls her " the 
prettiest woman in France, and the most inclined to be curious.'' 



270 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

himself from Court, and protested from Chantilly. 
On hearing the news, he rushed to Paris, distraught 
with anxiety, for on the loth, the judgment in the 
Princess of Monaco's plainte was to have been 
delivered; the husband had no case, it must have 
gone in her favour — and here was the Parliament 
dissolved ! M. de Monaco was threatening to fling 
his wife into a carriage and take her to the Princi- 
pality ; Marie-Catherine, in her terror, had made 
a personal? appeal to Conde. . . What was he to 
do ? Choiseul was down, but what if the " most 
popular " Cond6 should try his influence ? 

Conde reassembled the Parliament ! He pro- 
mised the magistrates that all should be well ; they 
believed, and at their first sitting under his auspices, 
(on December 31, 1770), they made a unanimous 
pronouncement in the Princess of Monaco's favour. 
A week later they were " out " again, the King had 
disavowed Conde s action — but Marie-Catherine was 
femme separee. 

Her story now diverges from what ought to be 
mine. She lived openly with Cond6 at Chantilly 
until 1779 ; then left the palace (for his children 
by the first wife were unfriendly to *' /^ madame " 
as they called her, and the strain grew tense) and 
went to her own Castle of Betz, at that time pur- 
chased so that she might have a home of her own. 
Conde, fashionably unfaithful, cared for her, never- 
theless, devotedly ; there was much quiet happiness 
at Betz. In 1789 came the Revolution. After the 



** The Lady of the Condeens '' 271 

fall of the Bastille on July 14, Conde, his son, and 
grandson (the ill-fated Due d'Enghien) left France 
precipitately — the first of the emigres. She went 
too, became a vagabond Princess, soon became a 
beggar Princess, for Betz had to be sold, and ** the 
heiress of the Brignoles found herself as poor as 
the poorest of the Cond6ens." No matter ; she 
followed Conde and his *' Army of Princes " in 
their long crusade against the Revolution — adored 
by them all, admired by Goethe, who saw her in 
1 79 1, and was completely captivated. "No man 
could have resisted her," he wrote in Wahrheit und 
Dichtung. She was fifty-three then ! 

In 1 795 the Grimaldi died ; in 1 808, from Wanstead 
House, Essex — the refuge offered them by hospitable 
England in 1801 — she and her lover were married, 
after a forty-eight-yearedi public liaison. They were 
both old and ailing, but still devoted ; in l^he 
Jerningham Letters we get a vivid little picture 
of them. Edward Jerningham was permitted to pay 
her a visit ("a most rare favour") in 1809. She was 
seventy-one, confined to her room with gout. 
" I marched in, very proud, to a very dark room. 
The Princess was in a low armchair by the fire, 
and the Prince on a still lower stool by her side. . . 
She was most gracious, thanking me particularly for 
all my goodness to the Chevalier Grimaldi." (The 
italics are mine.) The Chevalier de Grimaldi was 
doubtless a " Count Charles- Philip-Augustus," to 
whom reference is made in The Gentleman's Magazine 



272 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

for December 1832, as being a nephew of "Louis, 
Bishop of Noyon, for many years a resident in 
Paddington Street and York Buildings, Mary- 
lebone." This Charles-Philip-Augustus lived "for 
some years with the Prince de Cond6 at Wim- 
bledon." ... So Marie-Catherine had kept her 
tender heart — and moreover, Honor6 III had been 
a prisoner of the Revolution. No doubt even 
husbands were forgiven when that happened to 
them. 

She died in 1813, aged seventy-five, and was 
buried in the Catholic Chapel at Somerstown (near 
Wimbledon) " by torchlight, where a grand solemn 
dirge was performed" {sic). The Regent of 
England paid the funeral expenses, for the Prince 
de Condd was too poor. . } " She knew but to 
love and to suffer," says de Segur, pleading for 
indulgence. Not a very great deal of indulgence 
is needed ; and the lachrymose epitaph might more 
truly have been framed : " She knew how to love, 
to suffer ; to escape, and to be happy." At fifty- 
three, Goethe had been amazed to find her " so 
young, lively, and joyful." Only those who have 
found the best that life can give are of that company 
at that age. 

' Her remains were removed to France on the restoration of the 
Bourbons in 18 14. 



CHAPTER XII 

Death of the Duke of York at Monaco — Some Grimaldi marriages- 
The French Revolution — Monaco proclaims itself a Republic. 



i8 



CHAPTER XII 

\A /HAT had Honor6 III been doing all this 
" " time? In 1760 (while Marie-Catherine still 
wrote sentimental letters to him) he had settled 
a long-litigious point — the Turbia limits. For 
three hundred years this had hung in the air. The 
Savoys — now Kings of Sardinia — wanted to confine 
the Principality to the " Rock " merely, which 
would have meant that the town of Monaco were 
isolated from the rest of the Grimaldi estates — that 
is, from Roccabruna and Mentone. The Prince 
could not have gone to either without passing over 
Savoy territory. *' Turbia," in short, was to reach 
to the very walls of the town of Monaco. The 
Charles-Emmanuel of Honore Ill's day agreed, in 
1760, to drop the absurd pretension, and a satis- 
factory delimitation was arranged. 

In 1767, right in the middle of the first " Conde- 
crisis " — the year of that visit to Chantilly when he 
threatened his Princess's life — Honor6 III enter- 
tained a distinguished guest, the English Duke of 
York, brother to King George III. He came on 
from Paris, where he had been only moderately 
275 



276 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

appreciated. Madame du Deffand " had been afraid 
they would laugh at him " — and so they had, though 
not as much as she had feared. One story had 
caused a good many titters — of how a courtier had 
pointed out to His Royal Highness the Mesdames 
de Choiseul, Gramont, Mirepoix, Beauveau, and 
Chateaurenaud — the last being nearly seventy. 
Those, he was told, were the " King's Ladies." 
The Duke of York considered them. Then he 
said that he liked Madame de Choiseul, didn't dislike 
Mesdames de Gramont and Beauveau, could tolerate 
Madame de Mirepoix — *' but as for Madame de 
Chateaurenaud, I admit that I can't understand 
it." . . . Versailles delighted in the malentendu^ 
explained it by ^^ cette langue atroce'" — was that 
how they " put it " in English ? Paris was 
soon laughing too, so Horace Walpole must not 
be left out : his faithful gossip duly reported. 

Fresh from his Parisian eclat^ the Duke of York 
arrived at Monaco. Yet no — not fresh, for the 
poor Prince had suddenly been taken ill on his way 
to Italy. That indeed was why he had landed at 
the Principality. He was most solicitously received 
and tended, a beautiful rooip was prepared for 
him, every care lavished — but in eleven days he 
died.^ An English frigate was sent to bring his 
body back to England, and the funeral procession 

1 The room in the Palace where he died is called The York 
Chamber, and is still shown just as it was prepared for his reception. 
See also Note at end of chapter. 



Grimaldi in England 277 

at Monaco was very impressive. George III was 
touched by all the kindness and respect ; he soon 
sent Honore a present of six magnificent horses. 
The Duke of Gloucester, too, sent six horses, saying 
that these had been his dead brother's favourites, 
and would therefore (he thought) be doubly valued 
by the Prince of Monaco. The gifts were doubt- 
less highly welcome to the horse-breeder of 
Thorigny whom I have already described ; and 
they were accompanied by an invitation to visit the 
Court of St. James's. This was accepted, and next 
year (1768) Honore went. He had a delightful two 
months : brilliant receptions, bells ringing " for two 
hours " at Portsmouth on his arrival there, visits 
to Woolwich and its Arsenal, to Greenwich and its 
Hospital — he especially admired that — a great dinner 
at Lord Granby's beautiful house on the Thames, 
where " there were exquisite wines," (says a letter 
from one of his gentlemen, preserved in the archives 
at Monaco), and a feast which began at four o'clock 
and *' did not finish till very late at night." 

In 1770 came the decree of " Conde's Parlia- 
ment," in the Princess of Monaco's favour. Her 
husband was so enraged by this (narrates the indis- 
pensable Marquise de Crequy) that he had erected 
in the town a gibbet, whereon hung the effigy of 
a certain valet-de-chamhre whom he suspected of 
having furthered the intrigue. He had had the 
man tried in Monaco ; but a warning from France 
that if he pursued this French subject he would 



278 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

lose his Duchy of Valentinois, reduced him to the 
device of the gibbeted tffigy. In this he was merely 
imitating Louis I, who had decked Monaco with 
dolls representing Charlotte de Gramont's reputed 
lovers ; and Honore, with his solitary toy, was still 
more lost to all sense of humour, for the thing 
was kept in perfect repair — new clothes continually, 
newly painted face, and circumstantial inscription 
beneath, " which he used to go and look at every 
day." . . . Certainly the Grimaldis had original 
notions of displaying an injured husband's dignity. 



In 1777, the eldest son, Honor6-Charles, Due 
de Valentinois, married Louise-Felicite-Victoire 
d'Aumont, who was Duchesse de Mazarin in her 
own right, by inheritance from her mother, Louise 
de Durfort. The mother had been beautiful, rich, 
and magnificently generous ; " yet somehow," says 
the Marquise de Crequy, *' completely ridiculous. 
She could do nothing and say nothing without being 
laughed at ; but she was a pattern of wisdom and 
virtue by comparison with the daughter." The 
Grimaldis were now fatally unlucky in most of their 
marriages. Rendu characterises this lady as "a 
demon of licence and debauchery " ; Pemberton says 
that " her acts were too dark to bear recording " — 
and, (to succumb again to the incomparable Mar- 
quise), she was clearly not only evil, but surpass- 
ingly thick-headed as well. 



Propos de Prison 279 

The two ladies met in one of the Revolutionary- 
prisons during the Terror of 1794. Madame de 
Crdquy's room took fire one night, and she fled 
to the Duchesse de Valentinois for refuge. *' I 
found her tete-a-tete with a big pie, and fanning 
herself with a silver plate." She was delighted to 
see the Marquise : " My mother always thought 
you such a clever woman, and I do so hate dull 
ones." She went on to make confidences — chiefly 
about her various lackeys ; then, tiring of that, she 
touched upon books. Andre Chenier had once 
been asked to choose some for her. He — simple, 
male thing ! — having observed that she always 
dressed "in the pastoral manner," (garlanded and 
beribboned hats, for instance), had selected literature 
to match — idylls, eclogues. . . " I don't know," 
she now reflected, yawning behind the silver plate, 
*' why the poets always put their shepherds and 
shepherdesses in the bracken. I've been at many 
picnics with the officers at Monaco, and I can assure 
you that bracken isn't a bit nicer than anything 
else." Later, she recalled a visit to Sophie 
Arnould, when Sophie had brought off^ one of her 
most scabrous double-ententes. It was subtle, how- 
ever, as Sophie's worst abominations were apt to 
be, and it had left the Duchesse de Valentinois 
unscathed. " Sophie seemed to me quite the re- 
verse of piquante ; indeed, I should call her 
rather prudish." If the story could be printed 
here ! 



28o The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

Louise-Felicite got out of prison on the Ninth 
Thermidor ; divorced her husband, under the 
Directory, for incompatibihty of temper (a sufficient 
ground with that administration) ; married succes- 
sively various obscure persons — four or five being 
finally alive at the same time ; and died " raving 
mad" in 1826. She had had two sons: Honor6, 
afterwards Honore V, and Florestan, who succeeded 
his brother as Florestan I. 



Joseph, the second son of Honore III, married 
in 1782 Fran^oise-Therese de Choiseul-Stainville, 
daughter of a very galanf dame. This universally 
loved lady was known as " Madame Joseph de 
Monaco." Once more it is from the Marquise 
de Crequy that we get our most vivid impressions. 
These two, already friends, met in another 
Revolutionary prison. The Marquise was de- 
lighted with the encounter. " Although Madame 
Joseph de Monaco was naturally sensible, religiously 
inclined, and charitably disposed, she was also very 
witty. Her fancy was gay, although her heart 
was sad — a very attractive type of person." Next 
door to her in the prison was lodged a too-too 
musical family. She suffered martyrdom from their 
efforts, and could not understand why, for she haa 
been passionately fond of music. The Marquise 
de Crequy, sympathetically listening to her plaint, 
wondered, on her side, why she now hated " light " 



An Exquisite Princess 281 

compositions, while the more intense ones could still 
enchant her. 

Princess Joseph said at last, quite simply, "as if 
it was scarcely worth saying " — 

*' Music hurts me terribly, in fact, since I have 
lost my youth. It gives me emotions without giving 
me affections y 

" If," comments the Marquise, " she had under- 
stood other things as well as she understood psycho- 
logical ones, she would have been an extraordinary 
woman. She was always kind and good, but 
she could no longer feel friendship, for she had 
known love too much, and too often. The super- 
lative excludes the comparative." 

This hint is all we have of scandal about " the 
delicious Princesse de Choiseul-Stainville." She is 
more often described as " an angel and a martyr " 
— for she died on the Revolutionary scaffold in 
the Great Terror of 1794. Her husband had taken 
her en emigree in the early days, but their two 
children had been left behind, and Frangoise- 
Therese was a devoted mother. She went back 
to the little daughters, was at once arrested as a 
suspect, managed to escape, but was again arrested 
and brought before .the Tribunal of Fouquier- 
Tinville on the seventh Thermidor, year II (July 26, 
1794). Andre Chenier was with her. It was at 
the very height of the Terror, when the tumbrils 
came nightly to the Luxembourg prisons with the 
list of the Foumee (the " batch ") for the morrow. 



282 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

Princess Joseph was condemned to death. A 
friend advised her to declare herself enceinte^ for 
that was one way of possible escape for women. 
It gained time : they were not guillotined till they 
had brought forth their " patriot " for la patrie. 
She yielded at first for the children's sake ; then, 
" remembering her long separation from her husband, 
and the consequent injury to his honour," she 
insisted on writing to Fouquier-Tinville to beg 
for a moment's audience. When her letter was 
gone, she broke a pane of glass in her cell, and 
with the sharp-edged fragment cut off her lovely 
fair hair, so that her daughters might have it as 
a memento. Fouquier-Tinville did not come. 
She wrote again then, and told him that she had 
lied, that she was not enceinte. Soon afterwards 
" her name sounded down the long dark corridors." 
She turned very pale, then swiftly asked for some 
rouge, lest they should think she was afraid. She 
was not twenty-seven years old. Thirty hours after 
her execution came the fall of Robespierre. . . Not 
many even of those noble deaths were nobler than 
hers of whom the Marquise de Crequy wrote that she 
" was of the kind who believed that diamonds were 
born in their settings, and fruits in their baskets." 



The Revolution had meanwhile swept the Princi- 
pality of Monaco away. Already in 1790, the 
Communes of Monaco, Mentone, and Roccabrun^ 



Monaco runs Mad 283 

had demanded the same powers as had been assumed 
by the National Assembly. Hitherto these 
communes had been merely consultant, " auxiliaries 
of the Sovereign, to whom they conveyed the 
wishes of the people." They could vote nothing 
— not even taxes. Honor6 III yielded, granted 
the reforms. Thenceforth the three communes 
were to have legislative, administrative, and political 
powers, the Prince retaining only the executive. . . 
No sooner were the new councillors elected than 
they abolished all feudal rights and privileges ! 
The Prince, therefore, became a nullity. He left 
Monaco for Paris — an old man now, aged seventy, 
and gifted with sufficient insight to know that he, 
at least, was leaving his home for ever. 

Soon he lost the Valentinois Duchy, for the 
National Assembly, in 179 1, abolished all privileges. 
He made an attempt to save it by pleading that his 
fiefs had been given him in compensation for losses 
in Spain, not as free gifts from King Louis XIV. 
A decree was given in his favour by the Diplomatic 
Committee, but before it could be executed came 
the Tenth of August, and amid the terrible scenes 
which followed, the Prince of Monaco's claims were 
forgotten. 

The Principality went next. In 1792, the three 
communes declared Monaco, Mentone, and Rocca- 
bruna to be Free Towns, then proclaimed the Republic, 
and decreed "the perpetual downfall of the sove- 
reignty of the House of Grimaldi." On January 19, 



284 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

1793, these communes further declared them- 
selves to be a Republic. " A ridiculous parody ! " 
cries Rendu, and indeed it was nothing else, as 
the National Convention plainly showed in its 
answer to their three deputies, who came asking 
for its " alliance." There were only two articles 
in this Treaty of Alliance pour rire. The first, 
" There shall be peace and alliance between the 
French Republic and the Republic of Monaco." 
The second — which shows a puzzled sense of 
humour — ^ran thus : *' The French Republic is 
delighted to make the acquaintance of the Republic 
of Monaco." . . . What else was there to say ? 
But a month later the French Republic found some- 
thing else to do. It annexed the Repubhc of 
Monaco ! (February 14, 1793). 

This valentine was the free gift, it is true, of 
the new European Power ; an ardent letter had been 
written — " The happy moment of being united to 
you will be our bliss and glory " — but it was a 
case of making a valentine of necessity, for Monaco 
would certainly have been forced to unite itself 
before long. Nice had already demanded union 
(January 31, 1793); and soon "the municipalities 
forming the ci-devant Principality of Monaco " 
formed instead a district of the Eighty-fifth Depart- 
ment of the Republic — formerly the comte of Nice, 
now the D6partement Alpes-Maritimes. 

Even this abjection left the infatuated Mone- 
gascans unsatisfied with humble-pie. The name of 



Was there a Sigh? 285 

Monaco recalled many glorious, but too arrogant, 
memories : it was accordingly altered to the ancient 
" Fort Hercules," following the mania for antique 
nomenclature which then prevailed. In a Republi- 
can geography for the year II, we read that Fort 
Hercules was "the capital of a little principality, 
which could not have sufficed to sustain its prince's 
state ; but as he had property in France, he used its 
revenues to do good in the region. But what ^ good^ 
is worth our liberty ? " 

Honore III, despite his age and growing infirmi- 
ties, was arrested in 1794 — at the same time as 
Madame du Barry — and kept prisoner till the Ninth 
Thermidor. A sad, resigned old man, he died in 
his home in the Rue de Varennes six months later 
(1795), leaving his two sons to work out the destiny 
of the fallen House of Grimaldi. Rendu writes his 
epitaph. " He was a gentleman of intelligence and 
distinction, but of dissolute morals ; praised for his 
luxury and magnificence, but detested for his arbi- 
trary rule." . . . Did the " Lady of the Condeens " 
(then, with^her Prince and his army, passing a terrible 
winter in misery as great as any of the Republicans) 
spare a sigh for the man to whom, in her young foolish 
wifehood, she had written, " I only care to look nice 
when you are here " ? 



Note. — On the same day that the Duke of York 
was found to be dangerously ill, and lay in bed at 



286 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

the Palace, there appeared outside the Grotto of 
" La Vieille^^ a pleasure-yacht which had persistently- 
followed his ship. A young and lovely woman 
landed, and the yacht sailed away. As long as the 
Duke's illness lasted, a white form was to be seen 
daily, standing at the mouth of the Grotto, with 
her eyes fixed on the Palace. Then came the day 
on which the English ship in the harbour dropped 
the flag to half-mast. Instantly the white form 
vanished in the sea. 

The Monegascans are very loth to pass the place 
at night. Its name of La Vieille is probably a 
corruption of La Veille^ for this was formerly a 
sentinel's post. It lies just outside Monaco on the 
road to Mentone. 



CHAPTER XIII 

Honor6 IV and Honore V — The Sardinian Protectorate — The Mono- 
poly of Bread. 



CHAPTER XIII 

ll ONORE-CHARLES-MAURICE, succeeding 
to the headship of his House in 1795, 
succeeded, apparently, to nothing else. The Princi- 
pality was gone, a mere district now of the 85th 
Department ; the French fiefs were gone too — 
though there still was hope that the Government 
would pay the indemnity awarded to his father in 
1 79 1. In Monaco, the ancient, memory-haunted 
Palace of his ancestors had been pillaged, confiscated, 
transformed into a hospital for " the wounded of the 
Army of Italy " — General Bonaparte's soldiers. The 
rich artistic treasures had been sold by public auction, 
and so the furniture, plate, and pictures which had 
been accumulated through centuries were scattered 
all over the country.^ 

There was little, truly, to elate the heir. He 
was miserably poor, an epileptic, and continually the 

^ The Palace remained a hospital for several years ; then, from 
1806 to 1814, it was turned into the Mendicity Depot for the Mari- 
time Alps. When in 1814 it returned to the Grimaldis, it was 
unimaginably dilapidated. Later, when the princely purse had been 
replenished in the various ways which are to be set forth, " much 
was got back and restored to its former place." 

289 19 



290 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

hearer of most lamentable gossip about his divorced 
Duchess— that Louise d'Aumont who was such an 
inveterate marrier-again. Living humbly in Nor- 
mandy, he had perhaps only two consolations : the 
ajfFection of his brother Joseph,^ and the promising 
career of his elder son, Honors-Gabriel, who was 
serving in the " belle armee " of the Rhine. This 
Honors-Gabriel was severely wounded at Hohen- 
linden in 1 800 ; he fought with Murat in Germany 
in 1806, and in Spain in 1808. Napoleon (by that 
time Emperor) then offered him the post of Grand 
Equerry to Josephine. He accepted it, served her 
devotedly, and after the Divorce, on being offered 
the same function with Marie-Louise, refused it, and 
continued in Josephine's Household until 18 14. 

During the twenty years that Monaco was in- 
corporated with France, her history was " the banal 
tale of any small town." The English attacked her 
in 1800 (for her arsenal made her a valuable prize), 
but the French troops at La Turbia came so quickly 
to the rescue that the English ones fled — setting fire as 
they went to the long train of gunpowder which had 
been spilt in the hasty shipment of such ammunition 
as they had succeeded in seizing. There was an 
awful explosion, in which many women and children 
were killed. This was the one notable event in 

' Joseph was A.D.C. to the Earl of Moira in his attack on France 
in 1795. He had been one of the first emigrants. He married 
again, after his Princess's heroic death, " the widow of Major 
Welbore Ellis, of the 53rd Foot" {Gentleman's Magazine, Decem- 
ber 1832). 




From a liihogiaph by Delpech. 

LOUIS-JOSEPH DE BOURBON, 
p. ago] 



Prince de Conde. 



2^2 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

for the future" the Grimaldi sovereign-rights, and 
re-established the French Protectorate : Europe, and 
not *' ks deux maisons souveraines.'* Thus M6tivier, 
with something too much of official suavity, brackets 
together Royal Bourbons and Princeling Grimaldis ! 
The question of the Protectorate should have been 
left (he argues) to " the two sovereigns " ; Europe's 
interference supplied an evil precedent, which, later 
on, the Kings of Sardinia used to the full. 

Honore IV was too ill to reign ; he delegated his 
brother Joseph. This Prince was cordially liked. 
He came, to find a Principality much exhausted by 
the continual passage of Napoleon's troops, and still 
more by the incessant conscription — but much em- 
bellished, also, by many marks of the great man's 
genius, such as the Quay at Mentone, the St. 
Louis Bridge, and, above all, the renowned Cor- 
niche Road. The pre-Revolutionary administration 
was restored. The Prince was absolute, but his 
Governor-General lived at Monaco, and took all 
drudgery oiF his shoulders ; there were an Under- 
Governor {sous-gouverneur) at Mentone, and a Bailie 
at Roccabruna. Finances were controlled by an 
intendant-general. Justice was in the hands of an 
Auditor-General, or juge superieur^ who presided at 
the Criminal Court, and heard appeals against the 
Podestas, or head-magistrates, of the three towns. 
These had charge of civil justice. Police organisa- 
tion was entrusted to the consuls of each commune 
A Grand Council, composed of" Notables," discussed 



The Coming of the Heir 293 

the local needs of the communes, and the Prince was 
the final arbiter of their labours. 

Everything, then, depended in the last resort on 
what the Prince was like, *' and," says Rendu, " he 
was, alas ! frequently lacking in all that was needful 
for his country's happiness." Yet (as he admits) 
even at the worst there had hitherto been four 
things in Monaco's favour. 

1. Moderate taxation. 

2. Free Trade with France. 

3. The personal wealth of the Princes, their 
sojourn in the Principality^ and their frequent 
generosity. 

4. The French Protectorate. 

The third favourable condition was now a thing 
of the past. The Princes had lost all in the Revolu- 
tion. With this condition gone, it was sadly prob- 
able that, unless the Prince were one of the ^'good 
Grimaldis," numbers one and two would go also. 
Joseph's few months of power promised well for the 
land, but a few months was all he had. Very soon 
the heir, Honore-Gabriel, claimed his right to 
govern for his father — a right which it was impossible 
to question. In January 1815^ he was accordingly 
invested with Administrator-General's functions, and 
he left Paris for Monaco in February. 

He passed Cannes on the night of March i, 
about eleven o'clock. Suddenly his advance-courier 

* Honore IV was then alive. He died (some say he drowned him- 
self) in Paris in 1819. 



294 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

was stopped by several armed men, and asked his 
master's name. Soon afterwards "a personage" 
came to the Prince's carriage, and requested him 
to get out. He , naturally refused. The personage 
drew nearer, took off his hat with an air, and said, 
" Prince, the Emperor has just disembarked ; he 
is here and wishes to see you." Honor6, looking 
more closely, recognised General Cambronne, a 
faithful follower of Napoleon. He got out then, 
prepared for anything. Cambronne took him to a 
bivouac-fire, and there, in very truth, sat " the 
Emperor." It was the Escape from Elba ! 

" Hullo, Monaco, where are you going ^ " (Thus, 
if we believe Hector France, did Napoleon greet the 
traveller.) 

" Like you, Sire, I am going to look up my old 
Kingdom," answers laughingly the former Grand- 
Equerry. 

"What an odd meeting — two Majesties out-of- 
work 1 But are you not unwise to take the 
trouble ? In less than a week I shall be in Paris — 
and I fear I shall have to take your throne from you, 
mon cousin. So come back with me. If you make 
a point of living at Monaco, I'll appoint you there 
as sub-prefect." 

" You overwhelm me, Sire. But I think I should 
enjoy my restoration — however short a time it may 
last." 

" I'll give you three months ; and keep your 
place at the Tuileries for you." 



The News at Nice 295 

Obvious opportunity for an obvious reflection : I 
leave my readers to make it for themselves. 

No sooner did " Monaco " arrive at Nice than he 
informed the Sardinian Government there of the 
great encounter. This act is considered treacherous 
by his biographers ; but I find no mention of any 
compact of secrecy with Napoleon at the Cannes 
interview. That being so, I cannot forget that 
Honore Grimaldi was human, and who could 
resist the telling of such news? His "treachery" 
led directly to the sending of English troops to 
Monaco. They had happened to be at Nice, and the 
Governor-General for the King of Sardinia instantly 
despatched them thither. On March 13 they 
arrived, under the command of a Colonel Burke, 
ostensibly in the interests of Europe and the Holy 
Alliance,^ but that was of course the merest pretext. 
Europe was not concerned about Monaco : were there 
not an Anglo-Sardinian army at Nice and an English 
fleet in the Mediterranean ? It was really Savoy, 
nibbling again at that long-coveted leaf of the arti- 
choke, and the Governor-General at Nice had but 
" donned the complaisant cloak of England." 

The Monegascans, remembering 1800, were very 
hostile to the English garrison. Honore protested, 
demanded an explanation from the Court of Sardinia 
— but that was all he could do, and he did it with 
no result. For now came the Hundred Days, the 

* This was between Austria, Prussia, and Russia, " for the 
maintenance of peace and establishment of existing dynasties." 



296 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

second flight of the Bourbons, and Waterloo — and 
no one could remember the Prince of Monaco's 
grievance. The English, in fact, occupied Monaco 
during the Hundred Days. After Waterloo, fresh 
treaties were drawn up for everyone and every- 
thing, and Sardinia made another attempt for the 
desired '* strong little place." And at last she did 
for a time almost possess it ! The second Treaty 
of Paris (November! 1815) declared that the 
relations re-established between France and the 
Principality of Monaco should " cease in perpe- 
tuity," and the Protectorate be transferred to 
Sardinia. This, says Metivier, was the direct 
consequence of the Powers' interference between the 
" two sovereigns "in 1814. The Holy Alliance now 
followed that example, and " delivered the Princi- 
pality to the one Power whose ambition was 
dangerous to her." Honor6 IV (still at that time 
titular Prince) could not resist, but " he feared for 
the future — and 1848 showed that he was right." 
Future pages will demand an opinion of our own 
upon this point of Sardinia's complicity in the events 
of 1848. 

The French Protectorate had lasted one hundred 
and seventy-three years, and had brought nothing 
but good to the region. The people disliked the 
change ; Sardinia knew this, and Victor-Emmanuel I 
showed much desire to ingratiate himself. The 
Treaty of Stupinigi in 18 17 was the seal of the 
Sardinian Protectorate. Its tone was conciliatory ; 



The First Monopoly 297 

it was almost a copy of the " intimate " Treaty of 
Peronne, signed in 1641 between Louis XIII and 
the second Honore. True, it re-claimed the feudal 
homage for the ii-i2ths of Mentone and all 
of Roccabruna — one of those usages which the 
Revolution had swept away all over France ; but 
already, in 1 8 1 6, Honore IV had yielded that point. 
There had been no one to defend him, and he had 
known it : the Treaty of Paris in the year before 
had delivered him over, bound, to Sardinia. . . 
Otherwise, the Stupinigi paper was meticulously 
friendly ; all (besides the homage) that Sardinia 
ostensibly gained was the right to garrison Monaco/ 
Soon she began, however, to show her claws. There 
was in the town a prosperous tobacco-manufactory 
with many workers, producing excellent stuff in 
quantities sufficient to make exportation well worth 
while. Sardinia declared that this exportation in- 
jured her treasury, and Honore IV (to the amaze- 
ment of all his chroniclers) supinely permitted the 
works to be closed. Not only so — but soon all 
fabrication, importation, or trade in tobacco was 
forbidden in the Principality. Sardinia's gabelles 
royales were to deliver to the Prince's agents what 
was needed for the inhabitants' consumption, at cost 
price. Thus neither the Prince nor the Sardinian 
Government would gain any advantage over each 

^ The troops were housed in the former Convent of the 
Visitation, '' au bout des etatsP This had been built by 
Charlotte de Gramont in 1673, and is the only trace left of her 
in Monaco, 



298 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

other, but the Prince would gain all that there was 
in Monaco — and Monaco, for her share in the 
bargain, would simply be filled with " unemployed." 
Nor did Honor6 IV even attempt to obtain a com- 
pensation for his subjects, or to indemnify them 
in any way for this Sardinian monopoly. 



Monopoly. The word is written — the word 
which was to be the keynote of Monaco's future 
for many years. When Honore-Gabriel came as his 
father's delegate to rule over the Principality in 
1 8 15, desperately extravagant yet despoiled of home 
and treasure as he was, he found the people ready 
to make any sacrifices to help him. " He was 
greeted as a father," says Rendu ; " but he did not 
adopt his subjects as his children." He at once 
revived all the abuses and oppressions of feudal 
times ; the Principality became his chattel, its inhabit- 
ants his serfs. " In twenty-five years, he appeared 
thrice in Monaco, for a few days each time — then 
fled, taking his booty with him. He was the 
cause of the public misery, but he dared not be 
the witness of it." That is his indictment by 
Norbert Duclos, in a pamphlet ^ stuffed with docu- 
ments as a firework is stuffed with explosives — 
but burning with a purity and intensity that fire- 
works do not know. The little book is almost 

1 De V annexion de la principaute de Monaco a. la Sardaigne. 
1854. 



Street-'S weepings 299 

incredible in the reading. Wrath, stirred by every 
page, is incongruously now and then relieved by 
mirth — a mirth ungenial, smiling with curled lips 
indeed, yet irresistible at tale of such shameless 
devices of rapacity. Let us examine one or two 
of the methods whereby Honore V filled the purse 
that was to be emptied in Paris. 

Nothing was common or unclean : he accepted 
the street-sweepings. In 18 16 these were adjudged 
to belong, " like all other property," to the Prince. 
Pipes, cards, straw-hats were soon drafted into the 
list — no one might sell such things except the Royal 
monopolists. The slaughter-houses were next seized, 
and the sale of meat made " exclusive " ; then 
vermicelli, the staple food of the populace, was 
sold to a foreign speculator, who alone might 
retail it ; finally, the four oil-mills possessed by 
the Commune of Monaco were confiscated for the 
Prince, and private proprietors were obliged to 
shut their works, have their olives crushed by 
the Royal mills — or else pay a severe penalty. 
Linen, too : the Prince's mills only might sell, 
and of course the stuff was inferior, and the price 
high. 

But still the Royal purse was all too slender, 
and for a space invention failed. Direct taxation, 
in so small a kingdom, could not produce enough, 
monopoly was not producing enough : what should 
the poor Prince do ? Was there not a blessed 
thing called /;zdirect taxation ? It must at once 



300 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

be tried. . . . The Principality, especially the region 
round about Mentone, produced great quantities 
of fruit, olives, oils — so great that they could not 
be consumed, and must be exported. The way 
to opulence was clear. Crushing export-duties 
were put on to all fruits, essences, and oils. The 
proprietors would be ruined, for the import duties 
at the other end, (namely, in France and Sar- 
dinia), were heavy ; but the proprietors did not 
matter — only the Prince mattered, and the Prince 
got his money. The proprietors were ruined, and 
of necessity their workers with them ; but all were 
helpless, for Honore, in Paris, rigorously forbade 
his subjects to address any kind of complaint to 
him, however great the provocation. *' He organ- 
ised ruin," says Duclos, " and permitted only 
silence." 

By the official historians, his "absenteeism," so 
far from being an aggravation of his wrong-doing, 
is set forth as the excuse for all. " If he had 
but been able to be there ! " they wail. He was 
able to be there, I answer. "But the Palace was 
unimaginably dilapidated," cries Metivier. "But, 
as a 'peer of France^ he was obliged to reside in 
that country for a part of the year,'' falters the 
ridiculous Sainte-Suzanne. Metivier is at least 
worth answering. The Palace was dilapidated, 
but it was not in any sense ruined ; this Prince 
who " made philanthropy his hobby," whose " one 
thought was to better the condition of the * dis- 



A New Grimaldi'typc : the Philanthropist 301 

inherited ' " . . . such a Prince should surely not 
have found it impossible to shelter his head in his 
Principality at some time during the twenty-two 
years that he was Honore V 1 The plea of ab- 
senteeism, as urged by these distracted gentlemen, 
infuses some pity into one's contempt for their 
whispering humbleness. Were they then so "put 
to it " ? was that all they could find ? 

The truth is that, here in my record, the official 
gentlemen are out of court. Documents are forth- 
coming for every assertion made by Rendu and 
by Duclos. Both admit the personal charm of 
the oppressor ; he was cultured, intelligent, digni- 
fied ; "by the witty and stately delicacy of 
his language, one would have believed that he 
was anything but the intractable despot he was." 
He could write well ; his mind was active, and 
theoretically progressive ; political economy was his 
favourite study — he published in 1839 ^ pamphlet 
against pauperism : Du pauperisme en France^ et 
des moyens de le detruireT . . . For he was ardently 
hostile to workhouses : poor folk should not by 
any means be shut up. No ! They should have 
a maison de secours, such as he founded at Mentone 
in 1820,^ where soup and clothing were daily dis- 
tributed — and every property-owner in the country 
should keep it up according to his means. And 
that those might be accurately reckoned, an inquiry 

' When he had become the actually reigning Prince. (See Note 
ante.) 



302 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

into them should be made every three years. The 
Prince's own contribution should be voluntary : 
a safe arrangement, hein ? It was quite safe : the 
Prince never gave " even a piece of his own coin- 
ing." The gibe here is at the proverbial sous 
de Monaco. Towards the end of his reign, Honore 
began to coin five-franc pieces and sous — a process 
by which he gained thirty per cent, from the 
monopolists to whom he sold the rights. These 
gentlemen soon tried to circulate the Monegascan 
money in Marseilles, where it competed with French 
money and caused much irritation. The French 
Government ordered the circulation to cease, and 
as a consequence the coins were soon refused every- 
where. " The popular mind instantly said Base 
coifiy^ though there is a certificate of the pieces 
signed by thei French official examiner which affirms 
them to be free of alloy, the silver indeed being 
of greater worth than its face-value. Nevertheless, 
all the world still titters at the sous de Monaco : 
Monaco has come, in French slang, to stand for 
" base coin." . . . But let the reader smile for 
the last time at Honore V — for I am going to 
tell of the exclusive des cereales. That was what 
the people called it, until they learned to call 
it Starvation. Let us call it the Monopoly of 
Bread. 

The Principality produced little or no corn : all 
was imported. In 1816, the harvest was bad ; there 
had been rain and cold ; the crops were ruined — 



Bread 303 

and one Chappon,^ formerly a purveyor to the 
army, was lingering (out-at-elbows now) in Men- 
tone, when it occurred to him and Honor6 that 
both might make their fortunes by a "corner 
in wheat." Chappon was appointed sole purveyor 
to the Principality in the famine-year of 18 17, 
Express prohibition was made to the inhabitants 
of providing themselves elsewhere with corn, flour, 
or bread. Is there any need to describe the state 
of things ? We shall but find an exaggeration of 
what the history of monopolies has shown in every 
age : abominable stuff, high prices, ever-growing 
oppression of those who must buy. For soon the 
people might not even "do without." If families 
were thought to consume too little bread, (thus 
laying themselves open to the suspicion of buying 
it elsewhere), domiciliary visits were made, law- 
proceedings taken, persecutions of all kinds in- 
vented. And travellers must leave behind at the 
frontier any bread from elsewhere that they happened 
to have with them ; masters of ships even, making a 
better voyage than they had allowed for and arriving 
with bread and biscuits in the locker, must throw 
both away — else ships were confiscated and a fine 
of 500 francs inflicted. Moreover, oil-mills were 
seized and converted into flour-mills ; a small in- 
demnity, offered to the owners, was never paid ; a 
necessary road was made at the expense of those who 

1 " We are ashamed to say he was a Frenchman," says Rendu, 
" penniless at Mentone ; but he was soon enriched by the money 
and the malediction of everybody.": 



304 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

lived on the river-bank. Once finished, they found 
themselves taxed at the rate of fifteen per cent, a 
year to keep it up. 

The ordinance for the Monopoly of Bread, dated 
December 3, 1817, was not repealed for twenty- 
five years. It were tedious to fill these pages 
with the list of other oppressions, for none that 
ingenuity could discover was left untried. The 
half-starved folk began to leave the land. At once 
an ordinance forbade anyone to go out of the Princi- 
pality without a passport — which cost three francs ; 
this device in effect taxed a simple evening-walk, 
for the frontiers of the Principality, except along 
the coast, were all within gunshot range. Trees 
were next to be cut down only at the Prince's profit. 
All crops were sold at a price fixed by the police, 
and the Prince took one per cent. After ten o'clock 
at night, no one might leave the house without 
a lantern ; if he did, he paid a heavy fine. . . . 
But the cattle-laws, again, were genuinely amusing. 
The births of all beasts must be registered ; it cost 
the owner twenty-five cents every time a lamb was 
born. If that lamb — or any other of the animals — 
died, the death must be recorded, so that an 
oflicial might go to make sure, by viewing the 
body, that the " dead " had not in reality been 
sold or eaten. For stating that the death was 
genuine, this official, in plain language, blackmailed 
the owner ; and *' as no one was believed but the 
police," he might as well pay up at once. 



An Epitaph Finished 305 

In a word, from a population of 6,500, Honore V, 
that Philanthropist among Princes, contrived to 
extract a Civil List of 320,000 francs a year. 
About 80,000 of this sufficed for the State expenses ; 
the rest was spent in the Prince's private enjoy- 
ments in Paris — included possibly therein, the pay- 
ment for publication of a pamphlet on Pauperism 
and the Best Means to Destroy it. He died 
in 1 841, and was buried at Monaco : Monaco was 
good enough for that. On his grave he had de- 
sired that they should inscribe the words : " Ci-git 
qui voulut le bienr A Mentonese gentleman, re- 
garding them one day soon after they had been 
set up, finished the epitaph. " Sans V avoir jamais 
fait" he said reflectively, and (as it seemed) in- 
voluntarily. 



20 



CHAPTER XIV 

Florestan I and the Revolt of Mentone. 



CHAPTER XIV 

I lONORE V had never married. His brother 
* ^ Florestan succeeded him in 1841, at the age 
of fifty-six. He had had a vicissitous existence. 
Forced into the army by his father (Honor6 IV), he 
had broken the long family tradition of courage : 
in the army Florestan had wholly failed to dis- 
tinguish himself. He had then tried the stage, but 
there also he had had an inglorious career as " a 
walker-on at the Ambigu," says de Jolans — a 
Grimaldi chronicler who now makes his first appear- 
ance. Nevertheless, Florestan kept all his life a 
passion for the boards ; to be thought a delicate 
critic of the theatre was the one ambition of his 
feeble, storm-tossed life. He married in 18 16 a 
" Frenchwoman of very obscure origin," according 
to Larousse ; but faithful Metivier affirms that 
Marie-Louise-Caroline Gibert de la Metz was " of 
the bonne noblesse of Champagne." She ruled her 
husband, and through him the Principality, with an 
iron hand. When he succeeded as Florestan I — 
does not his choice of a Royal name from his four 
baptismal ones (Tancrede-Louis-Roger-Florestan) 
309 



3IO The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

give us the measure of the man ? — everything 
passed into her keeping. He was not allowed to 
meddle with her ordinances. Sign them he must, 
but there his part began and ended ; to read was 
supererogatory, for nothing that he might chance 
to say would be considered by Caroline. So he 
drifted on : " not a bad fellow " ; " one of those 
men of whom we say nothing, because there is 
nothing to say." All, then, depended on what the 
Princess Caroline was like. Honor6 V (Metivier 
tells us) " had looked forward to her being of much 
service to his brother." Rendu has his comment 
ready. " Truly Honore was right ; she was of his 
school ; the two were mutually comprehensible. . . ." 
The history of the Principality until 1847 is epito- 
mised in those words. 

There were high hopes in the earliest days. The 
new-comers were fervently greeted in Monaco and 
Mentone — horses unharnessed, carriage joyously 
dragged through the streets. "Long live Flores- 
tan ! " — and Florestan, at Mentone, was implored 
to get out of the carriage and come, as it were, to 
his new subjects' hearts. He was nervous ; there 
had been cries, " Down with monopoly ! " as well 
as the other cries — but finally he consented, and, 
standing in the midst of them, he promised to grant 
his people's desires. 

The exclusive des cereales was at once abolished. 
Chappon Brothers — for it was a firm now — " hastily 
withdrew, pursued by the hooting and derision of 



The Prince Hears 311 

the whole population." The deadly monopoly- 
bread was no longer the food of the people — but 
even while they rejoiced over this, they saw that 
what had been given with one hand was to be taken 
away with the other. For grinding was still to be 
done by the Royal mills alone, and the taxes on 
grain and flour were increased. So with all else : 
if one oppression were abated, another instantly 
sprang up. The annual princely revenue remained 
the same — 320,000 francs.^ Sardinia looked on, 
but not then did she intervene; and by 1845 ^^^ 
people, seeing no help anywhere, had fallen into utter 
torpor. Efforts had been made at first. Addresses 
were presented from Mentone, begging for the 
Sardinian institutions and pointing out the desperate 
state of affairs : the ruined orange-and-lemon trade, 
the dilapidation and disorganisation of the town, for 
there were no funds for public improvements — even 
the town-clock had run down and could not be 
repaired ; the pavements were in holes, the slopes 
leading to the church in ruins, the public school 
was too small to hold the children. ..." We have 
been unable to forget that it was not so formerly," 
— would the Prince hear ? 

He replied in these words : " I will hear nothing. 
I am come to govern you, and I need no counsel." 

One of the Mentone deputation said, " We are 

* From January i, 1843, to December 31, 1847, Florestan had 
1,500,000 francs — that is, 300,000 francs a year — solely from taxa-. 
tion in Monaco. (Rendu.) 



312 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

at least fortunate, Prince, in that Your Highness has 
heard the expression of our wishes and our wants." 

** Your wants I know ! " was the Prince's answer, 
and as he spoke, he walked away. 



He walked away, and Caroline took the stage 
as the Monopoly-Queen. Her debut was brilliant 
and original. She cornered Education. A public 
school was organised. The fees were exorbitant ; 
poor or even moderately prosperous middle-class 
folk could not afford them ; few scholars appeared, 
and the princely purse grew no fatter. But soon an 
ordinance changed all that : children were not to go 
anywhere else to school, nor might their parents 
give them private lessons. {Decree of January 25, 

1843.) 

Her second essay was the famous affair of the 
Oil-Mills, which began in 1845. There had been 
trouble about the crushing of the olives. The 
Royal mills were so unpopular that proprietors 
chose to pay the heavy penalty rather than use them ; 
and one in the Carei Valley, near Mentone — the 
great olive-district of the region — was therefore 
given up, and sold to a company at a very high 
price. No sooner had they settled down to work 
than Caroline built her monstrous " Model Oil- 
Mill " in the heart of the Carei district ! It was the 
very latest thing ; it had an engine of such power 
as no other mill in the whole country possessed. 



And Caroline Fails to Hear 313 

Owners were now " invited " to send their olives to 
be crushed by this pattern establishment, but the 
" friends of routine " (in the delightful official 
jargon) flatly refused. 'Twas but beating the air. 
An ordinance was issued. Olives in the raw state 
were to be sold only to the Most Serene Chamber 
for one whole year. 

But this time, Caroline had gone too far. Public 
anger blazed out at last — and blazed so fiercely 
that the Government was obliged to shut its Model 
Oil-Mill. 



Caroline had not been watching the signs of the 
times. The hour had struck — " but she heard not 
the bell." Things like these were not going to be 
done any more in Italy, for Italy had awakened 
to her destiny. Already, in 1821, even little 
oppressed Mentone had stirred in her sleep. The 
Liberal explosion of that year in Piedmont had 
brought the opening of the eyes : Mentone had 
made common cause with the insurrectionists, had 
actually decreed her union with Italy ! Honore V 
had crushed the movement there, as Austria had 
crushed it elsewhere ; nevertheless, 1821 was the 
beginning of the end for both. 

Two years later, Charles- Albert of Savoie-Carignan 
succeeded to the Sardinian throne. He was a lover 
of liberty, eager for reform, and a man of insight 
as well, for he foresaw the inevitable combat with 



314 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

Austria — although he refused to defy her at Maz- 
zini's bidding in 1846. In that year came the 
election of Pius IX to the Papacy, and his famous 
edict, granting liberty and reform to his subjects. 
Sardinia and Tuscany were quickly obliged to follow 
his example — and Mentone (which suffered far more 
from the oppression of Caroline than did the Royal 
Residence, Monaco) soon resolved to enter the 
insurgent ranks (1847). 

Charles-Albert had promised the desired reforms 
to Sardinia a few days before his birthday-celebra- 
tion on November 4. As he was the Principality's 
Protector, it was not unnatural for the Mentonese 
to cross the frontier and take part in the festivities — 
greater than usual on this great occasion. On their 
return they formed processions, cried " Long live 
Pio Nono ! long live Carlo- Alberto ! " illuminated 
the town, and two days later, went in a body to the 
Governor of Mentone's house. The Governor was 
one General Villarey, " whose whole career was one 
system of persecution." He was universally de- 
tested, but he was Caroline's right-hand man ; no 
redress from any edict of his was to be hoped 
for. He now promised, however, to commu- 
nicate the people's desires to the Prince (who was 
of course in Paris) ; and in ten days the Prince's 
answer came. " On his return to Monaco he would 
consider the reforms demanded." These reforms 
were to give to Mentone the liberal institutions 
which Sardinia now enjoyed. 




From an engraving by Antonio Marchi. 

CHARLES ALBERT, 
King of Sardinia, 
p. 3*4] 



A Secret Message 315 

But Villarey had in reality received two despatches 
from the Prince. One was for public hearing ; the 
other (*' most confidential ") was in effect the same 
secret message as was sent, in much more modern 
times, to another official in another similarly dis- 
affected country : Do not hesitate to shoot. . . . And 
even the public despatch left much to be desired. 
The people heard, and pondered. Did they not 
know their Florestan, their Caroline .? This was 
not enough. " On my return to Monaco " : no ! 
He must come now — he must come in answer, in 
immediate answer, to their cry. Had not the times 
changed ! 

He came to Monaco on December 9 — and shut 
himself up in the Castle, forbidding the authorities 
and people of Mentone to appear before him. A 
deputation braved the decree, went to the Castle : 
he refused to see them. Deep anger succeeded to 
the popular disappointment. The streets were now 
paraded by the people, chanting Italian hymns of 
liberty and crying " Down with Florestan ! " The 
Sardinian troops looked on, entirely passive. What 
were their thoughts ? The contrast must have 
occurred to them between their own Charles-Albert 
and this sulky, cloistered tyrant. How long would 
Mentone suffer him ? 

Meanwhile, at the Castle in Monaco, one of the 
Mentone " notables " was trying to make the Prince 
hear reason. This was Charles Trenca, a citizen 
of noble birth, great wealth, and ardent liberal 



3i6 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

convictions. He was in the Grimaldi service — had 
been in it since 1 8 1 9. Charles- Albert had noticed him, 
when he went in 1841 with the Due de Valentinois 
on a mission to Turin, and had bestowed honours ; 
as a consequence, when Trenca returned to the 
Principality, Florestan offered him the post of con- 
troleur-general des finances. Trenca had hesitated — 
but accepted. Soon afterwards, he was sent to Turin 
again. This time, "Sardinia sounded the Prince, 
through Trenca, on the subject of ceding the Princi- 
pality." Caroline was furious — scented treachery. 
Trenca at once resigned, and demanded a public 
inquiry. " He had never made any secret of his 
sympathy with the Court of Turin, but that did not 
spell treachery : was not Sardinia the Protector ? " 
The affair died down. Trenca was not permitted 
to resign, and there was no public inquiry. All 
this had happened in 1844; now, in 1847, here 
was Trenca pleading the rebels' cause — and here 
were the Sardinian troops, the Protector's troops, 
apathetically looking on at sedition. . . . Florestan 
put the inevitable two-and-two together, and im- 
mediately deprived Trenca of office. 

That Trenca was the "paid agent" of Sardinia 
I do not for a moment beheve. That he was her 
««-paid agent I do not for a moment doubt. Sar- 
dinia wanted the Principality ; Trenca wanted liberty 
for his native town — Florestan stood in the path 
of both, and there was only one way to get what 
both wanted. That was to encourage the revolt 



**For Freedom!*' 317 

of Mentone. By fair means liberty would never 
be obtained, then it must be obtained by " foul." 
The dilemma has presented itself to most liberators 
of little peoples, and has been solved in like 
fashion ; the same epithets have been hurled from 
the oppressor's side, the same unmeasured hero- 
worship poured forth on the other. Trenca was 
neither a vulgar traitor nor a calumniated angel ; he 
was simply a determined man who took the one way 
open to him if he would save his fellow-citizens from 
a despotism which was sapping their very existence. 
"He worked in the dark ! " shrieks the official writer. 
He worked in the dark because he could do nothing 
else if his people were ever to see the light again. 



For days and weeks the Prince and his son, 
Charles de Valentinois, promised, " promulgated," 
vacillated. Villarey was dismissed ; reforms of a 
sort were made, but they were so negligible that 
they merely fanned the popular fury. Florestan 
finally called upon Sardinia for her protection 
against his own subjects. She sent troops under 
one General Gonnet, and these troops were met by 
a procession of citizens, carrying before them the 
bust of Charles-Albert. The troops were armed, 
the Mentonese defenceless ; orders were to fire on 
the rebels, but forward the rebels went, knowing it 
might be death — or liberty. As they came up to 
the Sardinians, holding the King's bust high before 



31 8 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

them, the soldiers " suddenly with one accord sa- 
luted their Carlo- Alberto's effigy. Then there rose 
up a shout of triumph and joy from the people such 
as those valleys had never heard before." Gonnet, 
declaring that " Mentone was not disorderly," with- 
drew his men at once to Monaco, and assured the 
Prince that peace would not be broken. . . "He 
too was the paid agent of Sardinia," cry the official 
historians. I think he was ; but my sympathies are 
wholly with Sardinia in this episode. Whatever her 
ulterior designs, she was at the moment acting as 
no decent Government standing in any close relation 
to the Prince of Monaco's could have refrained from 
acting. Something had to be done, in short — and 
she was unmistakably marked out to do it. 

There is a delightful anecdote, just here, of some 
Mentonese sailors whom the furious Caroline sum- 
moned to her presence. She received them with 
soft words — her object was to win them over — but 
they were not to be corrupted. She then accused 
them of pandering to wealth. Their spokesman 
answered that wealth had long been unknown to 
Mentone, and, "moreover," he added, "we are all 
like one person ; we are all, do you see, like the 
five fingers of one hand.'' He spoke the truth, and 
Caroline almost recognised it. Shortly afterwards, 
the Prince issued "the Charter of the Sardinian 
Constitution." . . . Such a bitter mockery it was 
that the people did not even read it through. It 
was torn down and trampled in the mud. 



GrimaMis Go J 19 

That was in the middle of February. On the 
22 nd, there broke out in Paris the February Revo- 
lution of 1848 ; on the 24th, Louis-Philippe fled, 
as Mr. William Smith, from Paris in that " common 
hackney cab." . . . The flame of the French revolt 
spread over Europe ; Italy, so long smouldering, 
swept into a banner of fire. Charles-Albert, "all 
alone," declared war against Austria ; Pius IX fled 
from Rome, fulminating against the Italian alliance ; 
and Young Italy, looking to the " one sovereign 
who had not betrayed her," held out her hands to 
Sardinia. 

Not only Young Italy, but our tiny towns of 
Mentone and Roccabruna were "looking to Pied- 
mont." A few days after Louis-Philippe's flight 
the Sardinian flag was hoisted ; a National Guard 
was formed, with Charles Trenca at its head — and 
on March 31, 1848, Mentone and Roccabruna 
declared themselves Free Towns. They asked 
Sardinia for protection, Charles-Albert assented, and 
on April 3 his troops came back, this time with the 
definite intention of defending Florestan's " own 
subjects," if necessary, from him. 

The Mentonese Revolution was over, and over 
without violence or bloodshed. Never again — 
though not then was it fully realised — would a 
Grimaldi rule over the Two Towns. The long 
oppression was finished, the ancient heritage dis- 
membered. "Before God and before men," cries 
Rendu, " neither intrigue nor Sardinia made this 



320 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

revolution : it was born of the nature of things : it 
was the work of despair " — and I think that no 
reader of the " ordinances " so grimly set forth by 
Norbert Duclos can gainsay him. He had visited 
the district in 1845, and had seen with his own 
eyes the terrors of the awful regime : " neither 
despotism nor monarchy — unparalleled, unknown 
before in any country." 



Monaco had stood aside from the Mentone 
movement. There had always been some jealousy 
between the towns — between the barren, dominating 
Rock and the fair, productive region, flowing as 
it were with oil and orange-juice. The Princes 
had spent in Monaco any of the Mentone spoils 
that were spent out of Paris, and Monaco had 
deferentially eaten of the Royal crumbs. More- 
over the Residence was there, and Charles de 
Valentinois had made a rich marriage in 1846. 
Some day the Palace might be restored, the Prince 
might live in the land ; then there would be the 
sweets of office, the joys of *' Court-life." ... So 
the Rock reasoned, and the masters, finding it their 
only refuge, clung desperately to its cheaply-bought 
loyalty. From 1848 onwards to the final escape, 
Monaco and the Princes Florestan and Charles 
plotted incessantly to destroy the newly-won peace 
and prosperity of the rebel towns. So soon indeed 
as the May of 1848, Mentone was obliged in self- 




Prom a drawing by A. L. Collins. 

MONACO : THE PRINCE'S PALACE, 
p. 320] 



Unanimous 321 

defence to decree the perpetual banishment of the 
Prince, and all his family, and all his descendants. 

The desire of the Two Towns was for annexation 
to Sardinia. The organisation of a separate govern- 
ment was too heavy a task, all oppressed and de- 
graded as they so long had been. By unanimous 
vote — five hundred and sixty-eight voices for, and 
none against — the Grand Council asked the Court 
of Turin to annex them. Charles-Albert at first 
agreed ; but France showed so much hostility to 
the step that it had to be abandoned for the moment. 
That was Caroline's doing ; she still had friends in 
Paris. Soon, however, Turin wavered. Twice it 
seemed that the wish of the Towns would prevail ; 
Trenca moved incessantly between Turin and Paris 
. . . but then came the overwhelming disaster of 
Novara,^ and all such matters were indefinitely put 
oiF. In 1852 hope smiled again. Louis-Bonaparte, 
Prince-President of the French Republic, answered 
sympathetically an urgent appeal from the Towns. 

But again war-clouds obscured the issue ; the 
Crimean expedition of 1854 caused our little corner 
of the earth to be forgotten — and, to make a long 
story short, the definite annexation to Sardinia was 
never accomplished. The sympathy of Louis- 
Bonaparte — now Napoleon III — turned again to 
Italy in 1858. He made terms with Cavour 

* Charles-Albert was defeated at Novara in 1849. He abdicated 
on the battlefield in favour of his son, who thus became Victor- 
Emmanuel II of Sardinia, and later. First King of United Italy. 

21 



322 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

whereby he pledged himself to support Victor- 
Emmanuel against Austria ; among them was the 
cession of Nice and Savoy to France, in return for 
the possession of the North of Italy by the King 
of Sardinia. All the world knows the story 
of that struggle : Magenta, Solferino, and the 
astounding Conference of Villafranca, when trium- 
phant, victorious France, Victor- Emmanuel's sworn 
ally, laid down her arms, (though the war was 
scarce begun), and the Emperors of France and 
Austria agreed by word of mouth, without a single 
witness on either side, to the Confederation of Italy 
under Pius IX ! (1859). 

Of course it did not last, for nobody was, or 
could be, satisfied. Italian Federation was an idle 
dream. In 1861, after Garibaldi's glories in the 
South, Victor-Emmanuel II of Sardinia was proclaimed 
King of United Italy. 

But before this consummation, there arose in 
i860 the question of the ceding of Nice and Savoy 
to France. Victor-Emmanuel was to get Lombardy 
in exchange — a good bargain for him, though Savoy 
was the cradle of his race. The Treaty of Turin 
was signed in i860 ; Savoy and Nice were called 
upon to ratify by their votes the cession to France. 
It was a bitter disappointment to the Mentonese, for 
they loved Italy as only that land can be loved. 
But annexation to Sardinia was not offered as the 
alternative ; the alternative was a return to the 
Grimaldis. . . . There were six hundred and ninety- 



'*What will the Prince take?'' 323 

five votes for the annexation to France, and only 
fifty-four against. 

The fifty-four votes, though, gave Charles Grimaldi 
a pretext for demanding compensation. Napoleon HI, 
when Prince-President, had discussed the question 
of this indemnity with the Piedmontese Govern- 
ment, then on the point of annexing the towns. 
The Piedmontese offer had been refused by the 
Prince, but the discussion had created a precedent 
which Napoleon could not now disregard — and he 
wanted Mentone badly, so close as it was to the 
Italian frontier . . . What, then, would the Prince 
of Monaco take for the Two Towns — for the 
dismemberment of his heritage .'' 

The Prince, unable any longer to blind himself 
to facts, sold the Two Towns to France for four 
million francs (February 2, 1861). 



CHAPTER XV 

Charles III — The reigning Prince and Princess. 



CHAPTER XV 

pLORESTAN had drifted out of the world in 
-■- 1856, leaving the still unsettled question of 
Mentone and Roccabruna to Caroline and his only- 
son, Charles. In 1854, this son had made an 
attempt to regain the lost Towns — a personal attempt 
in a gorgeous carriage, drawn by six horses and 
blazoned thickly with the Grimaldi arms. He was 
in full uniform when, at six o'clock on an April 
morning, he drove up to the principal hotel. Not 
a soul was in the streets. Charles and his aide-de- 
camp looked eagerly about, but did not alight. At 
last half-a-dozen men approached and broke into a 
feeble Vive le Prince ! It was the concerted signal. 
Thirty or forty men now ran up, unharnessed the 
horses, and dragged the carriage through the streets, 
carrying the Grimaldi banner before them, and shout- 
ing " ^ has le Piemont .'/' 

Charles Trenca was dead — had died the year 
before. The Towns had been, as it were, re-born 
since !the revolution ; no one could enter them 
and glance even casually around him, without 
perceiving the beneficent change. The silent in- 
327 



328 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

dictment of Grimaldi-rule was louder than if pro- 
claimed by trumpet ; yet there was still, it seemed, 
a " Grimaldi party" in Mentone — the sort of party 
that may be guessed. It was not the sort that 
wins even moral victories. The *' rising " in favour 
of the Due de Valentinois was a rising pour rire. 
Before evening fell, he was a prisoner in the fortress 
at Villafranca. After four days' seclusion there, 
instructions came from Turin to set him free, but 
he was obliged to return to Paris — *' though I had 
the intention of going in the opposite direction." 
For his attitude was now that he had been merely 
*' passing through," had stopped but to change 
horses. 

"In full uniform, in a state carriage, and with 
no luggage ! " smiled the courteous Mayor of 
Mentone, listening to the tale. " Nor have I heard 
that Your Highness made any protest against being 
dragged, in his horseless equipage, through the 
streets } " 

This was positively the last appearance of a 
Grimaldi in the Free Town of Mentone. Florestan 
would perhaps more skilfully have stage-managed 
it, but the denoument would have been the same 
in any case. 



Charles had ruled since 1848 — for Florestan in 
that year delegated all his powers to the heir. 
Caroline, though she still influenced, was no longer 




TETE MONTE CARLO CASINO FROM THE SEA, 



p. 328] 



The First Step 329 

sole mistress, for her son had inherited her " energy 
and decision." He showed these plainly at the 
Villafranca negotiations in 1859, when he refused 
to recognise any French Protectorate over the tiny 
domain now left to him ; and Napoleon III, with 
fingers itching for Mentone and Roccabruna, 
acquiesced in the absolute sovereignty of Monaco 
which Charles III demanded — a sovereignty which, 
theoretically, prevails to this day. 

Moreover Charles had taken, three years before 
the Villafranca meeting, the first step towards the 
present unique distinction of his estates. He had 
looked around him, after his father's death in 1856, 
at the dismembered heritage, and had realised that 
nothing could be got. by commerce from his joujou 
de Prince. How, then, was money to be got ^. 
The answer came to him in a simple formula: 
*' Why should not Monaco, like Mentone, have 
her winter-season and her hains-de-mer ? " — and he 
at once set to work at developing his property 
in this direction. It were unjust to refuse to 
Charles some credit. Such development might well 
have been tried long before — and since no one 
could at that time foresee the course of events 
in Germany, nor the emergence of M. Francois 
Blanc from the wreck of the Kursaal at Homburg, 
Charles may be acquitted of the worst results of 
his enterprise. It called for a good deal more 
" energy and decision " than he possessed to make 
of Monaco what thtfamille Blanc has made of it. 



33° The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

And Charles really needed money. True, he had 
made a rich marriage in 1846, when the Comtesse 
Antoinette Ghislaine de Merode, of a most distin- 
guished Belgian family, had consented to become 
Hereditary Princess of Monaco. She had been a 
good deal disappointed with her new glories (relates 
Hector France) when she saw the dilapidated Royal 
residence which awaited her ; perhaps she had 
resented the deception^ and refused to spend her 
money in the region. Whatever the cause, by 1851 
the Grimaldis were pulling the devil by the tail. 
They were living in the Principality — in the Palace, 
one gathers, for "Charles, his wife, and his son" 
(the present reigning Prince) ^ " had only three 
rooms and an audience-chamber, the latter in a 
deplorable condition, furniture rickety, coverings in 
rags ; lackeys in tattered liveries, no horses, no 
carriage ; and they breakfasted on red herrings, and 
dined on anchovy-toast and olives." A heart- 
rending picture, and one in which neither Caroline 
nor her son Charles could perceive any such beauty 
as that of poetic justice, for instance ; so when a 
friend came from Paris on a short visit of con- 
dolence, and offered his advice as well, he was 
eagerly heard. " Set up gambling-tables," said this 
personage. " Then you can ruin other people's 
subjects; since," he added, perhaps a little unkindly, 
" you've ruined your own already." 

That advice had been given so long ago as 1851, 
1 He was born in 1848. 



Blanc Buys 331 

but not till 1856 did it flower into action. 
Charles III, as we have seen, succeeded in that 
year, and at once sold a concession for building 
bains-de-mer and a casino to two speculators, 
Messieurs Duval and Lefevre. These gentlemen 
risked — and lost — 200,000 francs on the afl^air. 
A casino was built opposite the Place du Palais ; 
but the Prince had exacted too heavy a toll — the 
concessionnaires went, ere long, into liquidation. They 
revived, however, and in 1858 began the present 
building on the Plateau des Spelugues. The young 
Albert-Honore, Hereditary Prince, laid its first stone. 
It was to have been called the Elysee Alberto, but 
the name finally selected was Monte-Carlo, in 
honour of the sovereign. Money began to come 
in, but Charles's exactions kept pace with it ; the 
concessionnaires were soon calling him Le Brocket — 
The Pike, after a fish notorious for the Grimaldi 
characteristics. Then, in 1B63, appeared M. Fran9ois 
Blanc, and in a flying visit bought casino, con- 
cessionnaires, and plateau; in 1870 he returned, 
and this time purchased Principality and Princes for 
a term of sixty years. 



I enter now a region of such wild invective, 
such unbridled scandal, that the very ink turns 
pale. Little scarlet books, bigger green ones with 
defamatory names upon the cover, pamphlets, 
articles, broadsheets — all informed with a passion of 



33 2 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

wrath — swarm upon the desk. To no'one is left a 
shred of character, past, present, or to come. The 
chronicle of voracity is naught beside the chronicle 
of vice : none known to poor humanity since the 
earliest ages is left unhinted at, or indeed (more 
precisely) unaffirmed. That anyone should be 
accepted as the legitimate child of his father be- 
comes an almost unthinkable event ; every man 
has a shameful past, and every woman a shameless 
present ; no one, in the last resort, has any aim but 
to get rich and to hoard or squander his riches ; 
loathsome diseases infest all bodies, and loathsome 
vices all souls. Such reading is more tedious even 
than such living can be ; I do not propose to convey 
very much of it into my pages. As a matter 
of atmosphere, the thing has its importance ; but 
history will take as little detailed account of the 
makers of such miasma as of the street-sweepings 
which a Prince of Monaco once claimed as his 
perquisite. Yet the little books are frantically 
sincere. It is a veritable crusade against evils which 
cannot have their sole existence in the imagination 
of the authors. 

Blanc, at any rate, was a convicted swindler long 
before he first emerged from Homburg in 1863. 
His offence had been fraudulent use of the tele- 
graph, by the corruption of employes, for the trans- 
mission of stock-exchange news from Paris. The 
Criminal Code of 1836-7 had no penalty for the 
particular fraud which was proved against him and 



A Moving Moment 333 

his twin-brother; they got off, therefore, with 
** seven months." Once at large again, they used 
the hundred thousand francs they had amassed in 
creating the Kursaal at Homburg. This flourished 
beyond their anticipations; but already by i860, 
Fran9ois Blanc, keen-witted and almost " second- 
sighted" for such matters as he was, had foreseen 
the revulsion of feeling in Germany which arrived, 
full tide, ten years later. After the war in 1 870 came 
German Unity ; and the Emperor William I at once 
put down gambling all over his Empire. 

Blanc, as we have seen, had in 1863 provided 
against this turn of the wheel. He now emigrated 
to Monaco, "with his army of croupiers," deter- 
mined, since he had bought up the place, to be 
absolute master there. Much could be done with 
the ravishing spot, but Blanc, brilliant financier that 
he was, (our own Lord Brougham considered him 
the most brilliant of his time), saw that enormous 
sums of money must be spent on doing it. " In- 
tensive cultivation " — yes ; the Rock should become 
an Eden. He sowed fifteen million francs without 
turning a hair — or a centime ; but the ground re- 
sponded in good time. Blanc, when he died in 
1877, was worth two hundred million francs. He 
sighed on his death-bed, turning remorseful eyes 
to the priest. " I have not worked hard enough ; 
I have not made enough money for my children." 
Let us hope that there was spiritual consolation 
ready for the touching med culpd. 



334 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

And what had Charles III, Sovereign Prince of 
Monaco, been worth ? what had Frangois Blanc 
paid for him in 1870 ? 

They fought for the mastery awhile, but Blanc 
was bound to win. Soon it was settled. He was 
to be absolute ; Charles was to be paid 500,000 
francs a year, and all his expenses — and he was to 
get half the profits made by the Casino as well. 
The Casino was bound to defray all the costs of 
"keeping up" the place: roads, gardens, promenades. 
It was also to pay the police^ and to "remunerate'' 
the magistrates ; to keep up the Prince's guard of 
a hundred men : and to provide the Governor- 
General's salary. Not a single tune could now, 
it will be perceived, be called by the Sovereign 
Prince — for he paid no single piper. Such were 
the terms upon which that " energetic " scion of 
the House of Grimaldi, Charles III of Monaco, 
sold himself and his Principality to the expelled 
croupier of Homburg. 

As long ago as 1866, a petition from Nice, signed 
by six hundred merchants and proprietors, had been 
addressed to the French Senate, begging that the 
gaming-tables at Monte-Carlo might be closed. It 
had been ignored : France had no jurisdiction. In 
1869 the Monegascans themselves had protested — 
had even, in a mild sort of way, revolted. Charles 
had taken fright, and had thought seriously of taking 
flight as well ; but Blanc, already potent in his 
counsels, (though not till 1870 absolute master), had 



*' Nothing is here for Tears'' 335 

induced him to sign a decree abolishing 'all taxes. 
** Vive le Prince I vive M. Blanc ! " had been the 
inevitable consequence ; and thenceforth roulette has 
paid for everything in Monaco — taxes, police, music, 
magistrates, and the rest. 

There were two more fruitless petitions from other 
Governments. First in 1876 ; then in 1882, five 
years after Blanc's death. Casimir-P^rier, President 
of the French Republic, was active in this latter ; 
Italy and England supported him. Casimir-Pdrier 
personally approached the Prince. Charles was then 
totally blind, but he evidently retained the much- 
vaunted energy, for his reputed answer was : *' I am 
a Sovereign Prince, recognised as such by all the 
States of Europe. The day I am obliged to shut 
the tables, I shall abdicate in favour of the German 
Emperor, who will accept, I know." France retired : 
doubtless there was nothing else for her to do. . . . 
When Charles died in 1889, it was said that he had 
been devoured by remorse for the condition of " his 
infamous Principality." Dumont, who tells this tale 
in Le Prince Rouge et Noir, wastes little sympathy 
on him. " He was blind, and to that extent helpless 
in the rascally hands that led him on — an unhappy 
and harmful puppet " ; but over such pant ins we do 
not stop to mourn, even should we happen to believe 
in their anguish. Assuredly Charles III might well 
have wept at leaving such a legacy to such a son — 
but death-bed repentances have gone out of fashion, 
even for Royalties. 



33 6 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

Albert-Honor6-Charles (Albert I), the present 
reigning Prince of Monaco, was born in 1 848 ; he 
was therefore forty-one when he succeeded his father. 
In 1869, he had married an Englishwoman, Lady 
Mary Victoria Douglas-Hamilton, daughter of the 
eleventh Duke of Hamilton and Brandon. She was 
a girl of nineteen when she was wedded to the then 
Hereditary Prince. His mother, Antoinette de 
M^rode, had died in 1864 — before the Blanc rule 
began ; his grandmother, Caroline the " Corner "- 
Queen, was still alive ^ ; his aunt, Florestine, worthy 
daughter of her mother, and at that time the two- 
months widow of H.R.H. Prince Frederick of 
Wiirtemberg, was deep in his counsels. With a 
Caroline and a Florestine to encounter, the very 
young and very wealthy Lady Mary might as well 
have walked into a den of hyenas. She suffered 
ignominy, torture ; she was as it were imprisoned 
in the dreariest part of the Palace, and besieged 
for her money. The object was to force her to 
make over her fortune to her husband. She was 
worked upon, preached at, humiUated, in every 
fashion known to such women and to the priests 
who were their instruments. But with all her young 
pride and resolution, she resisted. Lady Mary 
never signed the donation de hiens which was daily 
represented to her as the one means whereby to 
acquire her husband's "confidence." . . . Possibly she 
had come to know him well enough not to desire it. 

* She lived until 1879. 



An English Lady Escapes 337 

In 1870 her son was born — the present Hereditary- 
Prince, Louis-Honore-Charles-Antoine. She adored 
him ; her maid would sometimes find her in the 
morning, kneeling beside his cradle, *' having passed 
the whole night in tears there." ... At last, a 
public scandal drove her to action. She fled with 
her son to Florence. They tried to take him from 
her, but this attempt was foiled — some of the 
pamphleteers say by the intervention of a Russian 
Princess ; others, by an extradition treaty. Yet she 
kept him only for a time. In 1880 Charles III, 
on Albert's solicitation, declared the marriage to be 
dissolved. He had power in Monaco to make a 
civil marriage null and void ; but Dumont points out 
that this one was celebrated in France, not in the 
Principality. The Church of Rome had, however, 
already annulled the religious marriage : I think 
Dumont is here whipping a dead horse. With 
the dissolution, at any rate, came the obligatory 
renunciation of Lady Mary's child, and for her, 
despite the sorrow this must have caused, a happy 
disappearance from our story. 

In 1889 Albert, then reigning prince, married 
Alice, Duchesse de Richelieu, daughter of the great 
Hamburg banker, Salomon Heine — Henri Heine's 
famous "rich uncle." What, one speculates in- 
evitably, would the Knight of the Holy Ghost 
have thought of his new connection ? It would 
have inspired him with many a fleer, one may at 
least be sure. 

22 



33 8 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

The Duchesse de Richelieu was wealthy ; her 
fortune amounted to fifty milHon francs. Though 
questionably beautiful, she is described as remark- 
ably graceful and intelligent, a witty talker, a good 
listener, an accomplished and artistic woman of the 
world. Dumont grants her all these qualities ; but 
when the eulogists add to the list " a proud and 
upright nature," and "a steadfast constancy in 
friendship," he protests in no measured terms. 
Assuredly, does she possess the disputed virtues, 
her life at Monaco must be uncongenial to her — 
must at any rate have been so in the time of which 
he writes (1900). Around her was then a " Court " 
which polite speech hesitates to characterise. Dumont 
hesitates not : I refer the curious reader to his vivid 
pages. Of M. and Mme. Edmond Blanc, of Prince 
Constantin Radziwill and his Princess (nSe Louise 
Blanc), of Prince Roland Bonaparte— " M. Ruflin," 
as Dumont styles him by preference, with the in- 
evitable gibe at his legitimacy — married in 1880 
to pretty, wistful-faced little Marie Blanc, who died 
in suspicious circumstances two years later ... of 
this nobihty and its hangers-on, he has nastiness 
upon nastiness to narrate. 

Roland Bonaparte is the son of Prince Pierre, 
the black sheep of that far from snowy family — 
Pierre, married to Justine Ruflin, a plumber's 
daughter, after many years of unmarried life to- 
gether. '* Princess Pierre Bonaparte," come over 
with her husband to pick up money in London, 




From a pfioio%rat>'i. 
P- 338] 



ALBERT, PRINCE OF MONACO 



Alice's Influence 339 

opened a milliner's shop in Bond Street in 1872. 
She did not prosper ; she was more amused by 
telling card-fortunes than by selling hats. Roland 
was to be Emperor of the French some day ; mean- 
while Princess Pierre signed agreements with forged 
names, and had finally to leave England at mid- 
night in a cart driven by her son — for at all the 
railway stations policemen were eagerly looking out 
for her. . . . This lady would not, one hopes and 
indeed believes, have made precisely a congenial 
companion for the Princess of Monaco. 

Alice Heine was credited, in the earlier days of 
her marriage, with the desire of shutting the tables 
at Monte-Carlo when the actual concession should 
expire in 1913. On the contrary, in January 1898, 
the concession was ** by her influence " (to quote 
de Jolans) extended for fifty years from the August 
of 1898, on the following conditions : 

1 . Ten millions to be paid immediately to the Prince. 

2. Fifteen millions to be paid in 1914. 

3. Five millions for the works on the Condamine. 

4. Two millions for the projected building of 
the new Opera-House. 

5. A subsidy of twenty-five thousand francs for 
each performance given at the Opera — twenty-four 
a year. 

Moreover the Prince, already receiving almost 
two millions a year from the Casino, was further 
to get five per cent, of the receipts when these 
should exceed twenty-five millions. 



340 The Romance of Monaco and its Rulers 

The Princess is known as an ardent amateur of 
music — hence, no doubt, the careful provisions for 
the Opera's well-being. Her compatriot, the com- 
poser known as Isidore de Lara — and, a good many 
years ago, the idol for a season of London drawing- 
rooms, where he would sing his own compositions ^ 
in a manner peculiar to himself — is the star of 
Monte-Carlo music. His opera, Messalina, was 
produced there, amid enthusiasm — and whisperings 
of many kinds. Two hundred thousand francs were 
spent, it was said, on the production, which took 
place just before Holy Week. Among the whispers 
was one hinting at the Prince's dissatisfaction with 
many of the arrangements . . . but, here as else- 
where, since the Casino paid, the Casino (and 
Princess Alice) called the well-advertised tune. 

It only remains to speak of Albert Fs oceano- 
graphic discoveries. Dumont of course assigns 
them all to somebody else ; but I do not take 
Dumont with any high seriousness. In the Bulletin 
Scientifique for 1889,^ however, I find a well-known 
savant^ M. Alfred Giard, commenting on them 
thus : "A few quarts of sea-water ... do not 
suffice to wash out the stains of the blood of those 
who have killed themselves at the gaming-tables. 
Still, we must admit extenuating circumstances to 
a man who spends nobly an ill-gotten fortune ; 



^ Among them, the too-popular Garden of Sleep, now to be heard 
on antiquated barrel-organs only. 
^ Volume XX. 










From a photograph. 

V- 340] 




ALICE, PRINCESS OF MONACO. 



The Red and Black Royalties 34 1 

and from the scientific standpoint, every one would 
applaud such an example, if it were but shown 
with a little more modesty." 

There let us leave the Prince of Monaco. 

I bear no commission to denounce or applaud the 
world-renowned Casino. We should all of us, no 
doubt, play there on any occasion that we found 
ourselves in the Principality — and probably be but 
too eager to denounce it then. The sinister 
roll of the suicides (two thousand since i860), the 
horrors of the funeral arrangements, so vehemently 
recounted by de Jolans and Dumont, when the 
bodies are thrust into the ground, in an unplaned 
wooden box, to a grave which stands daily ready 
dug, and which the digger cannot find twenty-four 
hours later ; the thousand devices for plucking the 
rich pigeon and putting to flight the too-observant 
one ; the chain of influences whereby every weak- 
ness, every vice, of poor humanity is turned to 
the account of the Tables and their owners, La 
Societe des Bains de Mer de Monte-Carlo — "in Paris," 
observes Dumont, " we have a word to designate 
that type of man " — these denunciations I shall 
leave to more apostolic voices. But for all my 
potential readiness to contribute to their exchequer, 
I confess that I find it difficult to respect the "Red- 
and-Black Prince and Princess," that Royal Pair who 
live on roulette — as played by others. 




From a drawing by A. L. Collins. 

MONTE carlo: CASINO AND GARDENS. 



INDEX 



Acciajuoli, Niccolo, loi 

Achilles, Silver bowl of, Phoenician 

description, 7 
Adelaide, widow of Lothair — 
Rescued and married by 
Otho of Germany, 50 
Adorno, House of, 119 
Adorno, Marquis, 35 
Adrian V, Pope, 65 
Aix-la-Chapelle, Peace of, 259 
Aix, Louis d' — Knight of Marseilles, 

184, 185 
Albert-Honore-Charles (Albert I) : 
Accession, age at, etc., 336 
First stone of Monte Carlo laid 

by, 331 
Marriages : 
First — Lady Mary Victoria 
Douglas-Hamilton, 336 — 
Flight of Lady Mary, dis- 
solution of marriage, 337 
Second — Alice, Duchesse de 
Richelieu, 337 
Oceanographic discoveries, 340 
Alengon, Count of, at Crecy, 88 
Alexander VI, Pope — Alliance with 
Charles VIII of France against 
Naples, 139 
Alexandria, Vespasian proclaimed 

emperor at, 13 
Alfonso of Aragon, Attacks on 

Genoa, 128 
Alfonso II of Naples, 139, 142 
Amadeus VII of Savoy : 

Nice surrendered to, 118-9 
Support of John Grimaldi in 
seizure of Monaco, 119 



Amadeus VIII of Savoy, Carma- 

gnola's overtures, 123 
Amadeus IX of Savoy : 

Conditions of suzerainty of 
Roccabruna and half of Men- 
tone, 126 
Revolt of Grimaldi in Vin- 
timiglia — Siege of Monaco, 131 
Revolt of Mentone and Rocca- 
bruna against Grimaldi — 
Policy of Amadeus, 132 
Anderson, 35 

Andrew of Hungary, marriage and 
murder of, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98- 
100, 113 
Angouleme, Charles, Count of, 167 

—Death, 168 
Angouleme, Louise of Savoy, Coun- 
tess of, see Louise of Savoy 
Anne of Austria : 

Honore II of Monaco, relations 

with, 209, 210 
Louis I of Monaco, Caprice for, 

225 
Marriage with Louis XIII of 
France, 196 
Anne of Brittany, Wife of Louis XII 
of France : 
Daughter, birth of, 168 — 

Matrimonial schemes, 169 
Death, 167, 169 
Anselme, Pere, 35 
Antibes : 

Donation to Grimaldi alleged, 

37, 39 
Oath of fidelity to German 

Empire, 175 
Sale to Grimaldi by Clement VII, 
118 



344 



Index 



Antiquity of Monaco, 3 
Antoine I, Prince of Monaco : 
Birth, 226 

Marriage with Marie de 
Lorraine-Armagnac, 229, 
238 
Daughters only born of mar- 
riage, 240-1, 245 
Relations with his wife : 
Disputes as to naarriage of 

heiress, 247 
Mon Desert and the Giardi- 
netio, 253 
Military career — Loyalty to 
France in War of Spanish 
Succession, etc., 242-4 
Regret of subjects at his death, 
252 
Aristotle, 6 
Aries, King of : 

Bozon, proclamation of, 28 
Louis, son of Bozon, accession, 
28 
Aries, Siege of, 107, 108 
Armour, Weight of, 42 
Arnaldi, Captain Cesare, Attempted 
betrayal of Monaco — Escape, 
execution of his father in his 
stead, 186 
Arnould, Sophie, 279 
Assassinations, Age of, 151 
Asseline, Alfred, 213 
Astarte, 4 

Augsbourg, Diet of, 54 
Augustin Grimaldi, Lord of 
Monaco: 
Accession, 165 

Benefices and lands in France, 
165 — Confiscation, 176 — Re- 
storation, 179 
Bueil conspiracy against Savoy, 

alleged share in, 151 note 
Character and ability, 153 
Claudine, Will of, place in Suc- 
cession under, 155 
Doria, Bartolommeo, murderer 
of Lucien Grimaldi, vengeance 
on, 165-6, 173 — Execution of 
B. Doria, 179 
France, breach with — Causes, 

etc., 153-4, 165, 166, 173-8 
Sudden death — Suspicion of 
poison, etc., 181 



Augustus Caesar : 

Monument erected at La Turbia 

in celebration of conquest of 

Liguria, 11 
Region subject to, 10 
Aumont, Louise-Felicite-Victoire d', 

Duchesse de Mazarin, married 

to Honore-Charles Grimaldi, 

278 
Character, stupidity, etc., 278, 

279 
Divorce and subsequent mar- 
riages, 280, 290 
Imprisonment during the Terror, 

279 — Release, 280 
Madness and death, 280 
Austrian Succession, War of, 258 
Grimaldis, part taken by — 

Campaign of Maurice de Saxe 

in Flanders, 258-9 
Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, 259 
Aversa, 99, 105 
Avignon : 

Sale to Pope Clement VI by 

Queen of Naples, 104 
See also Papacy 



B 

Baal, 4 

Balbi, Anna, see Brignole-Sala 

Baldus, 10 1 

Barbary fig — Introduction into 

Monaco by Father Baptist, 

181 
Barcelona, city of Catalan pirates, 

77 
Bari, Archbishop of — Election as 

Pope, no. III 
Barnabas, first preacher of Chris- 
tianity in Maritime Alps, 

14 
Barraban, accomplice in murder of 

Lucien Grimaldi, 158 — Death 

at Rouen, 160-1 
Basset, Ralf, 70 
Bastille, fall of, 271 
Baux, Marquisate of — Conferred on 

Hercules Grimaldi, 209 
Bavaria, Duke of, encroachment on 

Germany, 49 
Beauveau, Madame de, 276 
Belisarius, 22, 23 



Index 



345 



Berengers, 28 : 

Competition for throne of Italy, 

30-2 
Deposition of Berenger, King of 

Lombardy, 50 
Marriage of Beatrice, daughter 

of Raymond Berenger, 62 
Raymond Berenger, Count of 
Provence : 
Presentation of Monaco 

to Genoa, 43 
Treaty with Genoa resigning 
all claim to Monaco, 61 
Bergen-op-Zoom, Siege of, 259 
Biaritz, M. de — Affair with "Ma- 
dame de Monaco," 227 
Bishops taken prisoners and loaded 
with silver chains — Guelf and 
Ghibelline conflict, 62 
Black Death, Louis of Hungary 

driven out of Italy by, 105 
Blanc, M. and Mme. Edmond, 

338 
Blanc, M. Frangois : 

Career before appearance in 

Monaco, 329, 332 
Purchase of Monte Carlo and 
Principality of Monaco, 331, 
333— Terms, 334 
Blanc, Marie — Circumstances of 

death, 338 
Blanchetache, 87 
Boccaccio, 96, loi 

Avaricious member of Grimaldi 
family depicted as Ermino the 
Miser, 71-4 
Boccanegra, Simon : 
Character, 79 

First Doge of Genoa, election as, 
after refusal of office as Abbot, 
78-9 
Hostility of the Four Families, 
retirement of Boccanegra to 
Pisa, 79 
Siege of Monaco, 89 
Treacherously poisoned, 91 
Bonaparte, Louis, see Napoleon III 
Bonaparte, Napoleon, see Napo- 
leon I 
Bonaparte, Prince Roland, 338 
Bonaparte, Princess Pierre — Career 

in England, etc., 338-9 
Boniface VIII, Pope, 93 



Bonnivet, Admiral — Shelter given 

to Bartolommeo Doria, 173 
Bontemps, 229 
Bouche, references to, 28, 35, loi, 

105, 107, 152, 183, 185 
Boucicaut, J ean le Maingre, Sire de : 
Appointment as Governor of 
Genoa — Character and posi- 
tion, 120 
Repulse in attempt to regain 
Genoa for France, 121-2 
Boundaries of Monaco — Difficulties 
with Savoy concerning Turbia 
boundary, 125 
Bourbon, Constable de : 

Breach with France, treaty with 

Charles-Quint, 172, 173 
Marignano, prowess at, 172 
Bourbon, Marguerite de, 167 
Bourbons, Restoration of, 291 
Boyer de Sainte-Suzanne, refer- 
ences to, 35, 91, 208, 300 
Boyer, Father, discovery of head 
of Augustus at La Turbia, 11 
Bozon : 

Administrator of Kingdom of 

Provence, 27 
Poisoning of first wife, 27 
Proclaimed King of Aries — 
Character of rule, 28 
Bozon, Louis : 

Accession to Kingdom of Aries, 

28 
Unsuccessful efforts to dis- 
lodge Saracens from fortress 
of Fraxinet, 30 
Brandon, Charles, Duke of Suffolk 
— Marriage with Mary Tudor, 
167 
Brantome, references to, 96, 108 
Bread, Monopoly of, 302-4 — 
Nominal abolition, 310-1 
Brequigny, reference to, 148 
Brigati, Giovanni — Part played in 
Honore II's revolt against 
Spain, 202, 203 
Brignole, Marie-Catherine de, mar- 
ried to Honore III of Monaco : 
Beauty, character in early life, 

etc., 261, 262-3, 266, 267 
Circumstances of courtship and 
marriage, 263, 265 
Parents, attitude of, 264-5 



346 



Index 



Brignole, Marie - Catherine de 
(cont.) : 
Conde, Louis- Joseph de Bour- 
bon-, liaison with, 267-8 
Breach with Honore III, ap- 
peal to France, 268-9 
Decree of Separation by Par- 
liament of Paris reassem- 
bled by Conde after its 
suspension, 269-70, 277 
Life with Conde, 270-1 — 
Marriage in England, 271 
Death — Funeral expenses borne 
by English Prince Regent, 272 
Brignole-Sala, Anna, Marchesa di — 
Liaison with Honore III of 
Monaco, 261-2 
Marriage of her daughter with 
Honore III, action in regard 
to, 264-5 
Brougham, Lord — Opinion of 

Frangois Blanc, 333 
Bueil, Astruga de, Wife of Andaro 
Grimaldi, 118 
Husband excluded from will, 74 
Purchase of Seigneurie of Illonza 
— Refusal of lUonzians to do 
homage, 75 
Bueil Branch of House of Grimaldi, 

see Grimaldi 
Bueil, Seigneurie of, 76 
Burgos, Treaty of, 175, 183 
Burke, Col. — Commander of Eng- 
lish troops sent to Monaco in 
1815, 295 



Cactus-Pear, introduction into 
Monaco, 181 

Cadiz, 4, 6 

Calabria, Charles Duke of : 
Fascination, 96 

Succession difficulties owing to 
death of, 94 

Calabria, John of — Governor of 
Genoa, 128 

Calais, Siege of, 89 

Caliente, Captain of Spanish garri- 
son of Monaco in 1641, 202, 
205, 206 

Cambrai, League of, 151, 153 

Cambrai, Peace of, 177, 179 



Cambronne, General, 294 
Campana, Marquisate of, conferred 
on Augustin Grimaldi, 179 — 
Confiscation, 209 
Canossa, Castle of, humiliating 
penance inflicted on Emperor 
at, 53. 54 
Capefigue, reference to, 167 
Carladez, Comte of, conferred on 

Honore II of Monaco, 209 
Carmagnola, Francesco : 
Condoitieri, age of, 107 
Governor of Genoa, 122 
Position at Milan ruined by 
Visconti's jealousy, negotia- 
tions with Savoy and Venice, 
123 
War against Milan : 
First campaign, success of, 

123 
Siege of Cremona, disaster at 
— Fate of Carmagnola, 
123-5 
Carnoles, miracles at, 133 
Carobert of Hungary : 

Crown of Naples, heir to — 
Excluded from succession, 92- 
3,94 
Death, 97 
Carthaginians driven westward by 

Phocaeans, 8 
" Carwell, Madam " (Louise de 
Querouailles) — Rivalry with 
Hortense Mancini, 230 
Casimir-Perier — Request for closing 
of Monte Carlo gaming tables, 
interview with Charles III of 
Monaco, 335 
Catalan Pirates, Grimaldi warfare 
against, 77-8, 85, 126 
Tax imposed by John Grimaldi, 
126 
Catherine, mother of Luigi de 

Taranto, 98 
Catherine of Siena, return of 
Papacy to Rome owing to 
mediation of, 109 
Cavour, 321 

Cays Cavaliere, Francesco and 
Bertrand, feud with Bernabd 
Grimaldi, 75-6 
Cazaulx, Charles — Knight of Mar- 
seilles, 184, 185 



Index 



347 



Chappon — Inventor of the Mono- 
poly of Bread, 302 — With- 
drawal of firm, 310 
Charlemagne : 

Destruction of Lombard rule — 

Proclamation of Charlemagne 

as King of Lombards and 

Franks, 25 

Roman Emperor, coronation as, 

25, 49 
Saracens kept in check, 27 
Charlemagne's Empire, Partition, 27 
Charles I of Anjou : 

Appearance and character, 62 
Count of Provence by marriage, 

62, 63 
Naples and the two Sicilies con- 
ferred on Charles by the 
Pope — Loss of Sicily, 63 
Wars in which Charles was en- 
gaged, 63 
Genoa, war with, in aid of 
exiled Fieschi and Grim- 
aldi, 63-5 
Charles II of Anjou — War with 
Genoa in support of Mone- 
gascan Guelfs, 65 
Abandonment of allies, pur- 
chase and bestowal of Monaco 
upon a Ghibelline, 65-6 
Charles III of Anjou, Legacy to 
France of Provence and pre- 
tensions to crown of Naples, 
133, 138 
Charles the Bold, Duke of Bur- 
gundy, 170 
Charles II of England — Rivalry 

with Louis Grimaldi, 230 
Charles VII of France, 126 
Charles VIII of France : 

Anne of Brittany, marriage with, 

167 
Character, appearance, educa- 
tion, etc., 137-8, 143 
Death of son, 168 
Grimaldis, relations with, 133, 

143 
Naples, expedition to, 138 
Allies, 139, 141 
Rapallo, victory of — Entry 
into Naples, 142 
Retirement to France — Death 
at Amboise, 142, 168 



Charles the Bald of France, 27 
Charles V, Emperor of Germany 
(Charles I of Spain) : 
Descent and inheritance, 170-1 
Emperor of Germany, election 

as(i5i9), 171 
Matrimonial schemes of Anne of 

Brittany, 169 
Milan, campaign against, claim 

to Milan, etc., 171, 172 
Monaco, relations with : 
Doria,Bartolommeo, murderer 
of Lucien Grimaldi, action 
in regard to, 166, 173 
Friendship with Augustin 
Grimaldi and his successor 
Honore I, 178 
Visit to Monaco in 1529, 180 
See also Spain and Monaco 
Charles I of Monaco — "The Great," 
81, 85 
Catalan pirates, warfare against, 

78, 85 
Criminals and bankrupts, asylum 
for — Description of Monaco 
under Charles Grimaldi's rule, 
86 
Family, 92 

France, support of against 

Edward III of England, 86 

Crecy, Grimaldi wounded at, 

88 
Siege of Calais, 89 
Naval and Military power of 
Monaco, increase in — Terri- 
torial acquisitions, 91 
Surrender of Monaco and retire- 
ment to Mentone until his 
death, 90, 91 
Charles II of Monaco, 182 
Charles III of Monaco : 

Absolute sovereignty demanded 
and secured at Villafranca, 
329 
Accession to power 328 
Casino and bains-de-mer, estab- 
lishment of, 329 — Build- 
ing of Monte Carlo, 331 
Sale of Principality to Fran- 
cois Blanc, 331— Terms, 
334 
Character, 329, 335 
Marriage, 330 



348 



Index 



Charles III of Monaco (cont.) : 

Mentone and Roccabruna, at- 
tempt to regain, 327-8 
Old-age, blindness and death, 
335 
Charles III of Naples : 

Louis of Anjou's campaign 
against, 117 
Introduction by Charles of 
" De Wet " school of tactics 
into warfare, 117 
Murder of, 114 
Charles III of Savoy : 

Bueil conspiracy against, 151 
George Grimaldi of Bueil, 
question of complicity in 
murder of, 152 
Cambrai, League of, 151 
Lucien Grimaldi, protection of 
— " Indult " granted, 146 
Charles II of Spain, Will of, 236 
Charles Albert of Savoie-Carignan : 
Accession to throne of Sardinia, 

reforms promised, 313-4 
Novara, defeat at, 321 
Charles-Emmanuel I of Savoy : 
Bueil's, Count Hannibal of, at- 
tempted revolt against, 194-7 
France, alliance with, 196 
Phrase of "the artichoke," 197 
note 
Charles Martel, 36 

Governor of the Franks, title, 24 
Refusal to help Gregory I 

against the Lombards, 25 
Saracen invasion, repulse of, 27 
Charles Martel, son of Queen of 

Naples, loi note 
Chateau-Neuf, Castle of, 113 
Chateauneuf and Les Spelugues — 
Towers built by Pertinax for 
protection of Port of Hercules, 
alleged, 14 
Plateau of Les Spelugues the 
present site of Casino, 14 note 
Chateaurenaud, Madame de, 276 
Chatillon, Marquis de, 246 
Chenier, Andre, 279, 281 
Childebert, King of the Franks, 36 
Chivre, Marguerite Duplessis de, 

213, 218 
Choiseul, Due de, Dubarry's cam- 
paign against, 269 



Choiseul, Madame de, 276 
Choiseul-Stainville, Fran^oise- 

Therese de — Married to 
Joseph Grimaldi, 280-1, 282 
Execution during the Terror, 
281-2 
Christianity, Introduction into 
Maritime Alps by Barnabas, 
14 
Christine of France, Marriage with 
Victor- Amadeus of Savoy, 196 
Claude of France : 
Birth, 168 

Marriage, schemes for, 168, 169 
Marriage with Francis I, 169 
Claudine of Monaco : 

Accession and marriage, 130 
Eldest son, delegation of power 

to, 134 
Lucien, delegation of power to, 

146 
Will, provisions of, 149, 155-6, 

165, 244 
Year of death, 156 note 
Clement V, Pope, 93 

Intervention on behalf of Barto- 
lommeo Doria, 179 
Clement VI, Pope, 102 

Legate sent in 1344 to govern 

Naples, 99 
Trial and acquittal of Queen of 
Naples — Purchase of Avignon, 
102, 104 
Clement VII, Pope, Election of 

Robert of Geneva as, 112 
Clement XI, Pope — " Vaini-affair," 

237 
Comines, Philippe de, references to, 

139, 142 
Conde, Louis- Joseph de Bourbon : 
Liaison with Marie-Catherine, 
Princess of Monaco, 267-8, 
270 — Marriage, 271 
Opposition to the Monarchy, 269 
Parliament of Paris reassembled 
by, after suspension of 1770, 
270, 277 
Coni, Province of, 106 
Conrad III of Germany — Frederic 
Barbarossa named as heir 
on condition of establishing 
Italian and Imperial rights, 
56-7 



Index 



349 



Conrad of Lorraine, restoration of 

Italy to Berenger, 50 
Corbons, Henri Grimaldi, Lord of — 
Agent to France for Honore II, 
199, 200 
Treaty of Peronne, conclusion 
of, 201 
" Corniche," 11 
Corsica : 

Legend of martyred Sainte 

Devote, 14-7 
Order of Knighthood created by 
Paoli — Chevalier de Sainte 
Devote, 17 
Cr6cy, Battle of, 87-9 
Cremona, Siege of, 123-4 
Crequy, Marquis de (Louis-le- 

Debonnaire), 248 
Crequy, Marquise de : 

Souvenirs of, 246, 249, 277, 278, 

279, 280, 281, 282 
Visit to Monaco, 248 
Crimean War, 321 
Curli, 65 



Dame Blanche a I'Ecu Vert, Order 
of, 120 

Damietta, Siege of, 41 

Dangeau, references to, 217, 239 

Deffand, Marquise du, 261, 276 

Desmont, Province of, 106 

Devote, Sainte, Patron-Saint of 
Monaco, 14-7, 149, 182 

Dolceacqua, Lord of, see Doria, 
Bartolommeo 

Doria, Andrea, Lord of Oneglia 
Assistance given to Bartolom- 
meo Doria, miurderer of Lucien 
Grimaldi, 156-7, 160, 173 
Mentone, bombardment of and 
subsequent conduct, 174-6 

Doria, Antony — Joint command 
with Charles Grimaldi of fleet 
raised to aid France against 
England, 86-8 

Doria, Bartolommeo, Lord of Dolce- 
acqua — Miirder of Lucien 
Grimaldi, 157-9 
Complicity of Andrea Doria, 

156-7, 160, 173 
Grievances against Lucien, 157 



Doria, Bartolommeo — Murder of 
Lucien Grimaldi {cont.) : 
Object of crime alleged, restora- 
tion of Marie de Villeneuve, 
159 — Letter of justification, 
166 
Retreat from Monaco, 160, 165 
— Protection by Francis I of 
France, 161, 173 
Vengeance taken by Augustin 
Grimaldi, 179 
Doria Family, 61, 65, 68, 78, 120 
Grimaldi succession, place in, 
under will of Claudine Gri- 
maldi, 156 
Hostility to Grimaldi House, 156 
Marriage with Grimaldis not- 
withstanding family rivalry, 
86 
Riot provoked by a Doria, re- 
sulting revolt of Genoa from 
France, 147 
Douglas-Hamilton, Lady Mary 
Victoria — Marriage with 
Albert I of Monaco, 336 — 
Flight to Florence, dissolution 
of the marriage, 337 
Dubarry, Madame 

Arrest during French Revolu- 
tion, 285 
Campaign against Due de 
Choiseul, 269 
Duclos, Norbert — Indictment of 
Honore -V, 298, 300, 301, 320 
Dumas, references to, 213, 217 
Dumont, references to, 335, 337, 

338, 340, 341 
Duprat, Chancellor, 172 
Durante, references to, 151 note, 152 
Durazzo, Charles Duke of — Murder 
of Andrew of Hungary 
Charge against Queen of Naples 
— Question of complicity of 
Charles, 102-3 
Killed by Louis of Hungary in 
revenge, 105, 113 
Durazzo, Charles Duke of (son of 
above) : 
Rimaway marriage with Mary 

of Naples, 98 
Succession to crown of Naples as 
Charles III — Imprisonment 
and murder of Queen J ane, 113 



35° 



Index 



Durazzo, Charles Duke of {cont.) : 
Murder of Charles by two 
Queens of Hungary, 114 
and note 

Durazzo, John Duke of — Heir to 
Provence failing Dukes of 
Taranto, 95 note 

Durfort, Louise de, 278 

Duval and Lefevre, Messieurs, con- 
cessionaires of bains-de-mer 
and Casino at Monte Carlo, 
331 



E 



Ecluse, Naval battle of, 86 
Edward III of England, struggle 
against — Grimaldis fighting 
in support of France, 69, 
86-8 
Elizabeth of Hungary : 

Coronation of son, efforts to 

arrange, 99 
Murder of Charles III of Naples, 
114 note 
Enghien, Due d', 271 
Entremont, Governor of Nice : 
Monaco, Siege of, 131 
Roccabruna and Mentone, sent 
to quell rebellion in, 132 
Ermengarde, daughter of Louis II, 

27 
Este, Beatrice d', 140-1 
Eugene of Savoy, Prince, 243 
Eutychus, 15 
Exclusive des Cereales, see Bread, 

Monopoly of 
Executions — Spanish methods in 
the sixteenth century, 186 



Fabius Maximus, 38 

Fabius Valens, 13 

Favart, Justine, 259 and note 

Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, 

170, 171 
Ferdinand of Naples — Betrayal by 

Louis XII of France, 153 
Ferrandina, Admiral, 199 
Ferte-Imbault, Madame de La, 

263 



Fieschi Family, 61, 68 

Flight from Genoa after Guelf 
defeat — Alliance with Charles 
of Anjou against Genoa, 62, 
63-4 
Fleurus, Battle of, 242 
Florence : 

Alliance with Charles VIII of 

France against Naples, 1 39 
Venice and Florence — War 
against Milan, 123 
Floristan I of Monaco : 
Accession, 309-10 
Character, career before acces- 
sion, 309 
Exactions and oppressions — 
Nominal abolition of Bread 
Monopoly, etc., 310-3 
Marriage, 309 

Revolt of Mentone, see Mentone 
Situation on his death in 1856, 
327 
Folieta, Ubertus, reference to, 

86 
Fontarabia, Siege of, 257 
Fontenoy, 259 

Fort Hercules — Name substituted 
for Monaco during French 
Revolution, 285 
Founder of Monaco, Hercules as, 

see Hercules 
Fouquier-Tinville, 281, 282 
France and Monaco : 

Breach with France, Causes, 
etc., leading to establish- 
ment of Spanish Protector- 
ate of Monaco : 
Aggressive policy of Louis XII, 
relations with Lucien 
Grimaldi, etc., 152-3, 
176 
Attempts to force a garrison 
on Monaco — frustration, 
153-5 
Murder of Lucien Grimaldi, 
protection of murderer by 
France, 161, 173 
Augustin Grimaldi's appeal 
to France and Germany, 
166 
Francis I's attempts to 
counteract German in- 
fluence 174 



Index 



351 



France and Monaco : 
Breach with France : 

Murder of Lucien Griraaldi 
— Protection of murderer 
by France {cont.) : 
Open breach — Acceptance 
of German Protectorate, 
173-8 
Reasons stated in Augustin 
Grimaldi's letter to Fran- 
cis I, etc., 176 
Return toFrench Allegiance: 
Duration of French Pro- 
tectorate, 296 
Struggle for Monaco, see 
Spain and Monaco — 
Revolt 
Bueil, Count Hannibal of, re- 
volt against Savoy — French 
action, 195-6 
French attempt on Monaco 
during reign of Charles II, 182 
Huguenot troubles at LaRochelle, 

196, 198 
League warfare : 

Anti-national character of 
The League, Spanish sup- 
port, etc., 183 
Guise's attempt on Monaco — 

Failure, 185-6 
Provence, resistance of — 
Marseilles secured for Henry 
IV by Libertat, 184-5 
Submission of The League 

(1596) to Henry IV, 184 
Treaty of Vervins, 186 
Monte Carlo gaming tables, 
Petition for closing of — Peti- 
tion supported by Italy and 
England, 335 
Napoleon I and the Napoleonic 

Wars, see that title 
Plainte of Princess of Monaco — 
Decree of Parliament of Paris, 
269-70 
Revolution, 270 
Abolition of Principality of 
Monaco, 282-3 
Name — Fort Hercules sub- 
stituted for Monaco, 285 
Republic of Monaco — Alli- 
ance with and subsequent 
annexation by France, 2 84 



France and Monaco : 
Revolution [cont.) : 
Condition of Monaco on 
accession of Honore IV, 
289 
Revolution of 1848, 319 
Turin, Treaty of — Nice and 
Savoy ceded to France 322 — 
Compensation paid to Charles 
Griraaldi, 323 
France, Hector, references to, 14, 

17, 294, 330 
Francis I of France : 
Character, 177 
Horoscope, 167, 168 
Intrigue with Mary Tudor, wife 

of Louis XII, 169 
Marriage with Claude of France, 

169 
Milan, campaign against, Battle 

of Marignano, etc., 171 
Monaco, relations with, breach 
with Grimaldis, etc. : 
Doria, Bartolommeo, shelter 

given to, 161, 173 
refer also to France and 
Monaco 
Pavia, defeat at, captivity at 

Madrid, etc., 178 
"Tout est perdu, sauf I'honneur" 
message, 178 
Franks : 

Charles Martel, see that title 
Lombard rule in Italy destroyed 
by, 24, 25 
Fraxinet, Saracen Fortress, see 

Provence 
Frederic II of Germany : 

Excommunicated for neglect of 

Crusader's vow, 58 
Learning, wit, etc, 59 
Marriage with Yolande, heiress 
of Jerusalem, 58 
Frederic Barbarossa : 

Accession to Crown of Germany 

— Conditions, 56-7 
Cruelties, 57 
Grimaldis fighting for, 41 
Milan and Dependencies re- 
duced — Formation of Lom- 
bard League, 57 
Repulse of Barbarossa at Battle 
of Legnano, 58 



35'^ 



Index 



Fregoso, House of, 119 

Pandolf at Siege of Genoa, 

129 
Paul, Doge of Genoa — Cruelty 
of rule, revolt of towns of 
Riviera, 129 
Peter, Doge of Genoa, 128 
Marriage, 127 

Sovereignty of Genoa offered 
to France, subsequent re- 
volt, 128 
Pommeline : 
Marriage with John Grimaldi, 

125, 127 
Revolt fomented at Mentone 
and Roccabruna, 13 1-2 
Thomas, Doge of Genoa, 125, 
127 
Fr6jus, 35 

Froissart, reference to, 87 
Froulay, Marquise-Douairiere de 
(Julie-Therese Grimaldi), 250 



Gades (Cadiz), 4 

Colonisation by Phoenicians, 6 
Garibaldi, 322 
Gemonian Stairs, 13 
Genoa : 

Abbot or People's Magistrate, 
refusal of Simon Boccanegra 
to accept office, 78 
Alfonso of Aragon, attacks on 

city, 128 
Bank of St. George, origin 

of, 80 
Catalan Pirates, hostilities 

against, 77 
Doge : 
First Doge — Simon Bocca- 
negra, 79 
Hostility of the Four Families 
— Retirement of Boccanegra 
to Pisa, 79 
Morta, John de — Election, 79 
Re-election of Simon Bocca- 
negra, 89 
Revolt against nobles — Elec- 
tion of a dyer as Doge, 148 
Faction fighting amongst lead- 
ing families, 61, 68, 78, 119 



Genoa : 

France, sovereignty of : 
Charles VI — Governors sent 
by France, 120-1 
Revolt and massacre of the 
French, 12 1-2 
Charles VII — Submission and 
subsequent revolt by Doge 
Peter Fregoso, 128 
Louis XII — visit of state, 

144-5 
Revolt against France by 
Genoese populace after 
rising against own aristo- 
cracy, 147 148 
Louis XII's expedition — 
Triumphal entry into 
Genoa, etc., 149-50 
Monaco, attempt by rebels 
to seize, 1506, 148, 149 
Grimaldi Expeditions against, 

80, 85 
Guelf and Ghibelline Conflict, 
position with regard to, 
60-2 
War with Charles I and II of 
Anjou, 63-5 
Milan, Dukes of — Sovereignty of 
Genoa : 
Sforza holding Genoa as a 

fief of France, 130 
Visconti, sovereignty of, 122 
Ownership and Occupation of 

Monaco, 43-5, 61, 91-2 
Revolts against aristocracy, 78 
Estates of nobles restored — 
Grimaldis and others for- 
bidden to come within ten 
miles of the town, 79-80 
Guillon and member of Doria 
family affair, 146-7 
Saracen Invasion, Protection by 
Genoa of towns of Ligurian 
littoral, 25 
Siege of Genoa — Castle sold by 
Bartolommeo Grimaldi to the 
enemy, r28, 129 
Venice, rivalry with, 77 
Geoffrin, Madame, 261 
George III of England— Acknow- 
ledgment of Prince of 
Monaco's kindness to Duke of 
York, 277 



Index 



353 



Germany : 

Decay of Royal power — Diffi- 
culties of Emperor with nobles 
of wavering allegiance, 51, 
55-6 
Origin of Kingdom of Germany, 

49 
Rival Candidates in 15 19 for 
Imperial Crown, 171 
Geryon's Cattle, Capture of, 4 
Giard, M. Alfred, on oceanographic 

discoveries of Albert I, 340 
Gibbon, references to, 12, 22, 58 
Gibert de la Metz, Marie- Louise- 
Caroline — Married to 
Florestan I of Monaco, 309-10 
"Corner Queen," rule as, 312-3 
Mentonese revolt — Interview 

with Mentonese sailor, 318 
Persecution of Lady Mary 
Douglas-Hamilton, share in, 
336 
Gioffredo, references to, 29, 35, 37, 
38, 69, 75, 76, 88 note, 107, 
146, 187, 210 
Giotto, 96 
GlandevSs, 75 

Gloucester, Duke of — Acknow- 
ledgment of Prince of 
Monaco's kindness to Duke 
of York, 277 
Goethe — Admiration of Marie- 
Catherine de Brignole, 271,272 
Gonnet, General, 317 
Goths : 

Erroneous use of word " Goth," 

21-2 
Invasion of Gaul, Pillage of 
Monaco, etc., 22 
Goyon-Matignon, J acques-Frangois- 
Leonor de, Comte deThorigny: 
Marriage with Louise-Hippolyte, 
heiress of Monaco, 240, 241, 
245, 247-8 
Matrimonial schemes for Honore 

III, 260 
Military career, 257 
Monegascans' refusal to recog- 
nise — Retirement to Paris, 
252 
Rule as regent for Honor6 III — 
acknowledgment as Sovereign 
Prince, 257 



Gramont, Antoine de, 213, 218 
Grimaldi marriage for his 
daughter, insistence on, 221-2 
Gramont, Charlotte-Catherine de 
("Madame de Monaco") — 
Marriage with Louis I of 
Monaco, 213 
Birth of a son — Antoine, 226 
Character, appearance, family 

and education, 218-9 
Convent of the Visitation built 

by, 297 note 
Honor6 II, affection for, 227 
Intrigue with Lauzun, 219, 220-2 

Lauzun's desertion, 231 
Monaco, life at, 226, 227 
Monsieur and Madame, relations 

with, 225 
Quarrels with her husband, 
224-5, 226 — Final rupture, 
230 
Return to Paris, 228 

Relations with Louis XIV — 
Lauzun's jealousy, etc., 
228-9 
Smallpox, death from, 231 
Gramont, Madame de, 276 
Granby, Lord — Dinner given to 

Honore III of Monaco, 277 
Grasse, Bishop of, 118 
Grasse — Oath of fidelity to German 

Empire, 175 
Gratien, 16 
Great Cistern, 181 
Greek Fire, Description of missile, 

26 
Gregory I, Pope, 24 
Gregory VII, Pope, 52, 53, 54, 

55 
Gregory IX, Pope, 62 

Enmity against Frederic II for 
neglect of Crusades, 58 
Gregory XI, Pope — taken back to 
Rome by Catherine of Siena, 
109 
Grimaldi, House of, 
Alberguetta, 74 
Ambrose, 121 
Andrea, 250-2 

Anne Hippolyte — Marriage with 
the Due d'Uzes, 241 — Death, 
241 
Antibes, acquisition of, 118 

23 



354 



Index 



Grimaldi, House of (cont.) : 
Antonio : 
Catalan Pirates, defeat of, yy 
Defeat at Loiera, loss of inde- 
pendence of Genoa, 80-1 
Avaricious member of family 
immortalised in Decameron — 
Tale of Ermino the Miser, 
71-4 
Bartolo, Governor of Calabria, 68 
Bartolommea : 
Marriage, 127 

Siege of Castle of Genoa, 
conduct at, 128 
Beatrisetta, 74 
Bemabo, 74, 75-6 
Bueil Branch of Grimaldi 
Family : 
Andre — Share in attempted 
revolt against Charles- 
Emmanuel of Savoy, 195, 
197 
Etienne, ,181 

George — Conspiracy against 
Savoy, 15 r 
Siege in Castle of Bueil, 
murder by valet, 15 1-2 
Hannibal — Attempted revolt 
against Charles-Emmanuel 
I of Savoy, 194-7 — Execu- 
tion, 197 
James, Baron de Bueil, 130 
John de Bueil : 

Capture and surrender of 

Monaco, 119, 121 
Vintimiglia, attack on — 
Taken prisoner by Geno- 
ese, 119 
John de Bueil, Seneschal of 
Nice — Surrender of Nice to 
Amadeus VII of Savoy, 
1 1 8-9 
■Catalan, 127, 130 
Charles I of Monaco — "The 

Great," see that title 
Charles, son of Charles The 

Great, 92 
Chevalier (Count Charles-Philip- 
Augustus) — Residence in 
England, 271-2 
Collateral branches, 245 
Country aristocracy, Grimaldi 
belonged to, 61 



Grimaldi, House of (cont.) : 
Delfina, 74 

England, Grimaldis fighting 
against in support of Philip 
VI of France, 69, 86-9 
Escutcheon and coat-of-arms, 

41, 67 
Extinction of House of Grimaldi 

pur sang, 240-1 
Extravagance — Andarone Gri- 
maldi excluded from his 
Wife's Will for prodigality 
and bad management, 74 
Flight from Genoa after Guelf 

defeat, 62 
Florestine, widow of H.R.H. 
Prince Frederick of Wiirtem- 
berg, 336 
Fortification of Monaco, refuge 
of debtors and criminals 
alleged, 80 
Francesca, Lady of Dolceacqua 
— Place in Grimaldi succession 
under will of Claudine, 
156 
Francesco "Malizia," 66, 68, 
76 note, 165 
Monaco retaken from Ghibel- 
lines, 66-7 
Franchino — Seizure of ancient 
patrimony during war with 
Genoa, 64 
Frangois, Abbot of Monaco, 

246 
Gaspar — Military prowess at 

Siege of Genoa, 68 
Giballin : 

Fort from which Grimaldi 
conductedcampaign against 
Saracens, 39 
Saracen stronghold on Mount 
Maurus taken by, 33, 
34-5 
Territory conquered pre- 
sented to Grimaldi al- 
leged, 33, 34-5, 39 
Guelf and Ghibelline Conflict : 
Grimaldis as leading Guelfs, 

61, 64 
Robert of Naples — Guelf ser- 
vice promised in return for 
protection for a period of 
ten years, 68 



Index 



355 



Grimaldi, House of : 

Guelf and Ghibelline Conflict 
(cont.) : 
War with Genoa : 

Charles I and II of Anjou 
supporting Monegas- 
can Guelfs, 63-5 
Abandonment of Monaco 
by Charles II of Anjou 
— transfer of Monaco 
to Ghibellines and re- 
covery by Guelfs, 65-7 
Grimaldi Expeditions, 80, 85 
Guglielmo, 74, 76 
Henri, Lord of Corbons, see 

Corbons 
Hercules, son of Honore II : 
Marriage, 201 

Shooting accident, death by, 
210-1 
Honore, 132 
Jeanne — Marriage with a Tri- 

vulzio, 193 
John Baptist, Doge of Genoa, 

1752, 214 
John, son of Rainier : 
Accession to Monaco, 121 
Catalan Pirates, warfare 
against — Tax of 2 per cent, 
enforced, 126 
Marriage, family, etc, 125 
Milanese Admiral at Siege of 
Cremona, 123-4 
Joseph : 

Marriages, 280, 290 and note 
Rule of Monaco as his 
brother's delegate, 292, 293 
Julie-Therese, Marquise-Dou- 

airiere de Froulay, 250 
Lambert, see that title 
Leonard — Mission to Charles- 
Quint, 174, 175 
Louis, 119, 121 
Luke, 70-1, 132 
Luke — Admiral of Provence, 118 
Mark, Captain-General under 

Charles V of France, 118 
Naval and Military achieve- 
ments, 69 
Origin of House of Grimaldi : 
Disputed genealogical tree 
drawn upby Venasque, 35-7 
Lofty Italian origin, 41 



Grimaldi, House of {cont ) : 

Pietra— Visit to England, 
Letter of Sir John Throg- 
morton, etc., 213-4 
Piracies — Grimaldi exploits, 65, 

69, 80, 86, 120 
Prince — Title conferred on Au- 
gustin Grimaldi after Pavia, 
179 
Prince etranger — Rank accorded 
to Antoine Grimaldi on his 
marriage, 229, 238 
Rabella — Secret Service Ofi&cer 

of Robert of Naples, 68 
Rainier, see that title 
Rinaldo — Military prowess at 

Siege of Genoa, 68 
Saracens, mission against, 40-1, 
see also subheading Giballin 
Sovereignty of Monaco : 

Abolition — Republic of Mon- 
aco, 284 
Date of Sovereignty — con- 
flict of opinion as to earliest 
date, 37, 44, 64 
Origin of Sovereignty : 

Donation by Otho — presen- 
tation to " a Grimaldus " 
of town of Antibes and 
fortress of Mourgues (al- 
leged), 37, 39 
Saracen stronghold taken 
by Giballin Grimaldi — 
conquered territory 
presented to Grimaldi 
by William of Pro- 
vence, 33, 34-5 
Deed of gift, question of 
authenticity, 35, 38-9 
Purchase of Monaco by 

Charles Grimaldi, 85 
Restoration of Princes by 
Treaty of Paris, 1814, 291-2 
Specieuse, 42 
Troubadour member of family — 

Luke Grimaud, 70-1 
Women — Distinguished allian- 
ces, 41-2 
For reigning Lords and Princes, 
see their first names 
Grimaud or Grimault, Gulf of (St. 

Tropez), 29, 35 
Grimoald,sonof Pepin d'Heristal,36 



'3S^ 



Indc: 



Guarco, House of, 119 
Guelf and Ghibelline Conflict : 
Battle cries, " Guelf " and 
"Ghibelline" first used as, 59 
Bishops taken prisoners and 
loaded with silver chains — 
Guelf defeat, 62 
Genoa, position with regard to 

conflict, 60-2, 63-5, 122 
Grimaldi, House of, see that title 
Origin of — Origin of terms, 49, 

55-6 
Original significance forgotten 
as rivalry grew fiercer, 60 
Guesclin, Bertrand de : 

Commander of Forces of Louis 
of Anjou in campaign against 
Jane of Naples, 106-7 
Ugliness and fascination, 107 
Guiche, Armand de, 225, 228 
Guillon — Dispute over basket of 
mushrooms with one of the 
Dorias, revolt of Genoa from 
France resulting, 147 
Guise, Due de : 

Attempt to surprise Monaco, 185 
Mission against the Leaguers of 
Marseilles, 184, 185 

H 

Hallam, references to, 42, 101, 118 
Harcourt, Comte d', 199, 200 
Hawkwood, Sir J., and his White 

Company, 107, 11 7-8 
Hecataeus of Miletus, reference to, 

9 and note 
Heine, Alice, see Richelieu, Alice 

Duchesse de 
Heine, Henri, 337 
Henry I, the Fowler, 49 
Henry III, Emperor — Reform of 

the Papacy, 52 
Henry IV, Emperor : 

Excommunication and dethrone- 
ment by Pope Gregory VII, 
52 
Penance done at Castle of 
Canossa, 53-5 
Henry IV of France : 

Character, etc., 183, 184 
Hannibal, Count of Bueil, notice 
of, 194 



Henry VI, Emperor, 58 

Confirmation of Raymond Her- 
enger's presentation of Mo- 
naco to Genoa, 43 
Henry VIII of England : 

Alliance with France and Spain 

against Milan, 171 
Candidature for the Empire, 171 
Henry Jasomirgott, 55, 56 
Henry the Lion, 55 
Henry the Proud, Duke of Bavaria 
— Claim to Crown of Suabia, 
55, 56 
Hercules : 

Mythical Founder of Monaco — 

PhcEnician Theory, 3-4 
Origin of confusion between 
Greek and Phoenician Her- 
cules, 9 
Origin of name " Hercules," 4 
note 
Hercules I, Prince of Monaco : 
Accession, 183 
Character, t86 
Murder by his subjects, 187 
Vengeance taken by the 
Prince di Valdetare, 191 
Herculis Partus — earliest name of 

Monaco, 4 
Hildebrand, see Gregory VII 
Hiram, Navy of, 6 
Hohenlinden, 290 
Holy Alliance, 295 and note, 296 
Holy Roman Empire, Origin of, 

51 
Honore I of Monaco, 165 
Accession, 181 
Campaigns against the Turks, 

181, 182 
Death, 182 
Honore II of Monaco, 36 

Attempted murder by assassins 

of Hercules I, 187 

France, sojourn in, 210 

Louis XIII, meeting with at 

Perpignan, French Orders 

conferred on Honore, etc., 208 

Marriage — Alliance with the 

Trivulzio, 193 
Revolt against Spain, see 

Spanish Protectorate 
Summary of administration — 
Death in 1662, 212, 237 



Index 



357 



Honore III of Monaco (Honore- 
Camille-Leonor) : 
Birth, 248, 249 
Character, 262, 285 
Date of accession, 253 
England, relations with : 
Duke of York's visit and 
death at Monaco, 275, 276 
— Acknowledgment ' b y 
George III and Duke of 
Gloucester, 277 
Visit to England, 277 
Horse-breeding at Thorigny, 

268 
Intrigue with Anna, Marchesa 

di Brignole-Sala, 261-2 
Marriage with Marie-Catherine 
di Brignole, 265 
Circumstances of courtship 

and marriage, 263-6 
Rupture with his wife, 268-9 
Vengeance on servant sus- 
pected of furthering his 
wife's intrigue, 277-8 
Matrimonial projects : 

Goyon-Matignon's schemes, 
refusal to fall in with — 
Imprisonment at Arras, 260 
La Valliere, Mile, de — abor- 
tive project, 264 
Military career with Maiu'ice de 
Saxe in Flanders, wounded 
at Raucoux, etc., 258, 259, 
260 
Revolution in France, loss of all 
power as Prince, departure 
from Monaco, 283 
French fiefs, loss of — com- 
pensation decreed, 283, 289 
Imprisonment during, 272, 
285 — Release and death, 
271, 285 
Honore IV of Monaco (Honore- 
Charles-Maiarice) : 
Birth, 266 
Date of Accession — Condition of 

heritage, etc., 289 
Ill-health, 289, 292 — ^Delegation 
of power to his brother 
Joseph, 292 
Marriage, 278 — Divorce, 280, 

290 
Paris, death in, 293 note 



Honore V (Honore-Gabriel) : 

Arrival in Monaco — ^Meeting 
with Napoleon I on his 
escape from Elba, 293-4 
Information given to Sar- 
dinian Government, 295 
Claim to govern for his father, 

293 
Exactions and oppressions — 
Absenteeism, monopolies, ex- 
port duties, etc., 298-305 
Grand Equerry to Josephine — 
Fidelity to Josephine after 
the divorce, 290 
Military career, 290 
Pamphlet on pauperism, 301, 

305 
Summary of reign — Death and 
epitaph, 305 
Hugo, King of Italy : 

Saracens, successes against, 

while Governor of Provence, 

30 

Vicissitudes as King of Lom- 

bardy and King of Italy, 30-2 

Huns, 24 



Illonza, Seigneiurie of, purchase by 
Astruga Grimaldi — Refusal of 
lUonzians to do homage, 75 
Importance of Monaco in early 

days, 9 
Innocent XII, Pope, 237 
Investitures, War of — Origin, 55 
Isolda, 100 
Italy : 

Battleground of France and 

Germany, 171 
Liberal explosion in Piedmont, 

1821, 3x3 
Pius IX, federation under, 322 
Union under Victor-Emmanuel, 
322 



James of Majorca, 108 
Jane I, Queen of Naples, 91 

Alteration of succession — Policy 
of Charles II of Anjou and 
Boniface VIII, 92-4, 113 



358 



Index 



Jane I, Queen of Naples (cont.) : 
Beauty, character, education, 

etc., 95-6 

Danger of position, runaway 

marriage of Dukeof Durazzo 

with heir-presumptive, 98 

Hungarian efforts to press 

forward coronation of 

Andrew of Hungary, etc., 99 

Grimaldis in service of Queen of 

Naples, 105-8 
Heiress of Provence — Will of 

Charles II set aside, 95 
Marriage with Andrew of Hun- 
gary, 94-8 
Marriages subsequent to death 

of first husband, 104, 108 
Misery of situation, Petrarch's 

description of, 98 
Murder of Andrew of Hungary 
— Charge against Jane, flight 
to Avignon, 99-104 
Recall of J ane to Naples — Luigi 

de Taranto made King, 105 
Succession to Crown of Naples : 
Adoption by Jane of Louis of 
Anjou as heir and exclusion 
of Durazzo, 113 
Durazzo crowned by Urban VI 
as Charles III of Naples, 113 
Urban VI and Naples — Deposi- 
tion and death of Jane, 112, 
113, 114 
Jerningham, Edward — Visit to 
Marie-Catherine de Bri- 
gnole after her marriage to 
Conde, 271 
Joanna of Spain, 170 
J ohn I of Monaco : 

Campaign against Naples, share 

in, 143 
Charles VIII of France, relations 

with, 143 
Genoa, presence at on occasion 
of Louis XH's state visit, 
144 
Appointment as Governor of 
Vintimiglia by Louis XII, 
145 
Murder, supposed — Suspicion 
resting on Lucien Grimaldi, 
146, 151 
Will, provisions of, 245, 252 



Jolans, references to, 339, 341 
Juan, Don, of Austria, 182 
Julius Caesar, 10 
Justinian, 22 



La Bruyere, reference to, 219 

La Fayette, Admiral — Mission to 

Augustin Grimaldi, 174 
La Garde-Freinet, 29 
La Grande Mademoiselle, Lauzun's 

courtship of, 231 
La Turbia : 

Battle at, 258 
Boundary of Monaco : 
Delimitation arranged be- 
tween Honore III and 
Charles-E mmanuel of 
Savoy, 275 
Difi&culties with Savoy, 125 
Louis XIV, conquest by, union 
in perpetuity with Princi- 
pality of Monaco, 242 
Origin of name, 11 
Position commanding Monaco 

from landward side, 148 
Savoy, jurisdiction of, 166, 243 
note, 244, 258 
La Valliere, Mile, de — Marriage 
project with Honore III of 
Monaco, 264 
Laghetto, Church and Convent of, 

211 
Lambert of Monaco : 

Appointments — Governor of 
Vintimiglia, etc., 130, 132, 
133 
Carnoles, Church and Convent 

built, 133 
Marriage with Claudine and 
succession as Lord of Monaco, 
130 
Purchase of part of Mentone, 

132 
Revolt against Sforza — Sur- 
render of Monaco, 131 
Lamberts, 28 

Lara, Isidore de — Musical produc- 
tions at Monte Carlo, etc, 
340 
Larousse, reference to, 309 
Laufeld, 259 



Index 



359 



Lauzun (" Puyguilhem ") : 

Intrigue with " Madame de 
Monaco," 219, 220-2 
Desertion of " Madame de 
Monaco," courtship of La 
Grande Mademoiselle, 231 
Jealousy of the King, 228-9 
Personal appearance, 219 
Legnano, Battle of, 58 
Lempriere, reference to, 12 
Lepanto, 182 
Lerins, Monks of, 17 
Les Spelugues and Chateauneuf — 
Towers built by Pertinax for 
protection of Port of Hercules, 
14 
Plateau of Les Spelugues, the 
present site of Casino, 14 note 
Libertat, Pierre de — Liberator of 

Marseilles, 184-5 
Liguria, 61, 78, 132 

Conquest by the Romans, 10 

Lombard conquest, 23 

Narses the Eunuch, recovery of 

Liguria from Barbarians, 23 
Period of prosperity, 2 1 
Provence included in province 

of, 27 
Saracen invasion, 27 
Ligurians, 4, 9 

Loiera, loss of Genoese indepen- 
dence at, 80, 81 
Lombard League, formation of, 57 
Lombards : 

Alboin, invasion of, 23 
Dominion in Italy, period of — 

Hatred by Italians, 24, 25 
Longbeards, origin of nickname 

given by Italians, 24 
Place of origin, 24 
London, Treaty of, 244 note, 257-8 
Longo, Antonio, reference to, 160 
Loria, Roger de, 85 
Lorraine-Armagnac, Marie de — 
Marriage with Antoine Gri- 
maldi, 229, 238 
Character, 239 
Failure to bear a son, 240-1, 

245 
Marriage of heiress, disputes 
between husband and wife, 
247 
MonDesfrt, 253 



Lorraine-Armagnac, Marie de 
{cont.) : 
Monaco, sojourn at and escape 

from, 239-40 
Return to Monaco, 240 
Lorraine, Henri de, Comte d'Har- 

court, 199, 200 
Lorraine, Prince Charles of, 246 
Louis I of Anjou : 

Adopted as heir of Queen of 

Naples, 106 
Grimaldi, Rainier, title of Ad- 
miral of the Mediterranean, 
etc., conferred on, 108 
Hostilities against Naples and 
Provence— Bribes offered to 
Rainier Grimaldi, 106-8 
War against Charles III of 
Naples, 117 
Louis II of Anjou, 119 
Louis XI of France, 130, 133 
Louis XII of France : 
Accession, 143 
Anne of Brittany, marriage 

with, 167, 168 
Cambrai, League of, author of, 
153 
Savoy, Charles of, bringing 
into League, 151 
Character, 153 

Charles VIII's Naples cam- 
paign, share in, 142 
Genoa : 
State visit to, costumes, etc., 

144-5 
Suppression of revolt, tri- 
umphal entry, etc., 149-50 
Matrimonial schemes for the 

Princess Claude, 169 
Milan : 

Claim to, 142 

Expedition against — Submis- 
sion of Milan and Genoa, 
143-4 
Loss of, 171 
Monaco, importance attached 
to, dealings with Luciea 
Grimaldi, etc, 143, 153, 
154-5, 176 
Garrison, attempt to force on 
Monaco, 153-4 
Tudor, Mary, marriage with — 
Death, 166-7, 169 



36o 



Index 



Louis XIII of France : 

Anne of Austria, marriage with, 

196 
Godfather to Louis Grimaldi, 

promise, 209 
Savoy, alliance with, 196 
Louis XIV of France : 

Admiration of Madame de Mo- 
naco — Lauzun's trick, 228-9 
Duchy-Peerage of Valentinois, 
Prince of Monaco permitted to 
divest himself of in favour of 
his heiress's husband, 246 
Godfather to Louis Grimaldi, 
209 
Louis XV of France — Relations 

with Parliament of Paris, 269 
Louis XVIII of France — Restora- 
tion, 291 
Louis-le-Debonnaire, 49 
Louis of Hungary : 

Marriage negotiations, 94, 97 
Mmrder of Andrew of Hungary : 
Reply to letter from Queen 
of Naples asserting her 
innocence, 103-4 
Revenge — Invasion of Italy, 
murder of Charles of 
Durazzo, 104, 105 
Louis-Philippe — Flight from Paris 

in 1848, 319 
Louis I of Monaco : 

Birth — Godson of Louis XIV, 

209 
Character, appearance, etc., 
217-8, 220, 223, 235 — Saint- 
Simon's portrait, 235 
Date of Accession to Princi- 
pality, 227 
Legal studies — Code promul- 
gated in 1678, 235 
Lorraine's, Marie de, accusation, 

240 
Love Affairs : 

Anne of Austria's caprice, 225 
Mancini, Hortense, liaison 
with — Rivalry with Charles 
II of England, 228, 230 
Marriage with Charlotte-Cath- 
erine de Gramont, 213, 
220-3 
Relations with his wife, 224- 
5, 226 



Louis I of Monaca — Marriage with 
Charlotte-Catherine de Gra- 
mont {cont.) : 
Vengeance for infidelities, 231, 
278 
Rome, embassy to — Extrava- 
gance displayed, etc., 236, 
240 
Success, question of — Death 
due to Vaini-affair, 237 
Louis - Honore ■ Charles - Antoine, 
present Hereditary Prince of 
Monaco — Birth, 337 
Louise-Hippolyte, Heiress of Mo- 
naco : 
Marriage question — suitors, dis- 
putes between her parents, 
etc., 246-7 
Marriage with J acques-FrauQois- 
L6onor de Goyon-Matignon — 
Conditions imposed, etc., 240, 
241, 245, 246-8 
Passion of Victor -Amadeus II 

of Savoy, 248-9 
Rule as reigning Princess — 
Early death, 252 
Louise of Savoy, Countess of 
Angouleme, 167 
Bourbon, Constable of, ruin of, 
172 
Lucien Grimaldi, Lord of Monaco : 
French aggression — Lucien's re- 
lations with Louis XII, etc., 
152-5, 176 
Genoese expedition of Louis 

XII, share in, 149-50 
Installation at Monaco, 146 
John Grimaldi, murder of, 
suspicion resting on Lucien — 
Action of Duke of Savoy, etc., 
146, 151 
Marriage with Anne de Ponte- 

vez, 156 note 
Murder by Bartolommeo Doria, 
156-61 
Avenged by Augustin Gri- 
maldi, 165-6, 173, 179 
Reopening of room in which 
murder took place, under 
Prince Charles III, 187 
Luigi of Taranto, 98, 102, 108 

Marriage with Queen Jane of 
Naples, crowned King, 104,105 



Index 



36> 



"Madame de Monaco," see Gra- 

mont, Charlotte Catherine de 
Magdeburg, 24 
Magenta, 322 
Mahomet, 25 

Malta, Siege of (1565), 182 
Mancini, Hortense : 

Louis I of Monaco, liaison 

with, 228, 230 — Rupture, 230 
Rivalry with " Madam Car- 
well " for Charles II of 

England, 230 
Manfred — Dethroned by Charles of 

Anjou, 63 
Marie-Louise of Austria, 290 
Marignano, 171, 172 
Marseilles — Siege by Spanish forces, 

175 
Martin, Henri, reference to, 183 
Mary, granddaughter of Robert I 

of Naples — Marriage, 94, 97, 

98-9 
Mary of Burgundy, 170 
Mary of Valois, 96 
Massima, Duke, of Rome, 38 
Matignon, Abbe Leon de. Bishop of 

Lisieux — Anecdotes from 

Crequy Souvenirs, 249-50 
Matilda, Countess of Tuscany — 

Devotion to the Holy See, 

53-4 
Maiurice of Savoy, Envoy to Ho- 

nore II on] behalf of Spain, 

206 
Maximilian I of Germany, 170, 171 
Hostility to Charles VIII of 

France, 142 
Mazarin, Cardinal, Grimaldi-Gra- 

mont Marriage suggested by, 

220 
Mazarin, Hortense Mancini, Duch- 

esse de, see Mancini 
Mazarin, Louise d'Aumont, Duch- 

esse de, see Aumont 
Mazzini, 314 
Mediterranean Coast — Harbour 

fortresses established by Phoe- 
nicians, 6-7 
Melkarth or Hercules — Phoenician 

theory of founding of Monaco, 

4.5 



Meloria, Battle of, 68 
Menelaus, King of Sparta, 7 
Mentone and Roccabruna : 

Bombardment of Mentone by 

Andrea Doria, 175 
Claudine's Chapel— Miracles, 

133 
Purchase by Grimaldis, 90, 132 
Residence of Charles Grimaldi 
after sturrender of Monaco, 91 
Revolt of Mentone and Rocca- 
bruna from Monaco, 132, 
313 
Desire for Annexation by 
Sardinia, Sardinian flag 
hoisted, 319 
French hostility, desire 
never fulfilled, 321 
Florestan I, reply to demands 
for reform, etc., 314-5, 
317 
Charter of the Sardinian 
Constitution, issue of, 318 
Free Towns, declaration as. 
National Guard formed, 319 
Monaco, abstention from re- 
volt — Explanation, 320 
Recovery, Attempts at : 
Charles Ill's attempt, 

327-8 
Decree of perpetual banish- 
ment against Princes of 
Monaco, 320-1 
Trenca, Charles, action of, 

315-7 
Turin, Treaty of — Cession to 
France, feeling in Men- 
tone, 322-3 
Compensation paid to 
Charles HI, 323 
Savoy, Suzerainty of — Homage 
claimed in respect of Men- 
tone and Roccabruna, 126, 
146 
Claudine of Monaco, Will of 

— Homage forbidden, 149 
Confirmed by Arbitration in 

1704, 244 
Renewal of claim by Sar- 
dinia, 297 
Succession of Rainier and 
Charles Grimaldi as joint 
Lords, 92 



362 



Index 



M6rode, Comtesse Antoinette-Ghis- 
laine de — Marriage with 
Charles III of Monaco, 330 — 
Death, 336 
Metivier, references to, 35, 36, 37, 
44, 67, 108, 126, 146, 178, 180, 
181, 187, 237, 253, 291 292, 
300, 309, 310 
Milan : 

Conquest of city and depend- 
encies by Frederic Barbarossa, 
57 
Genoa, humiliation of — Disaster 

at Loiera, 80-1 
Louis XII of France, conquest 
by, 144 
Lost by Louis XII (1513), re- 
captured by Francis I 
(1515), 171, 172 
Sforza and Visconti, see those 
names 
Mirepoix, Madame de, 276 
Monaco et ses Princes, 36 
Moncade, Spanish Admiral — De- 
feat off Nice, 175 
Moneghetti, Plains of — Fortifica- 
tions of Septimus Severus, 
14 
Moncecus — First application of 
epithet to " Port of Her- 
cules," 9 
Mons Maurus, 29, 31, 33, 34 
Montaldo, House of, 119 
Monte Carlo : 

Atmosphere of scandal, etc., 

331-2 
Building of Casino, etc., 331 
Purchase by M. Francois Blanc, 
331 — Extension of concession 
in 1898, Conditions, 339 
Requests that gaming tables 

should be closed, 334-5 
Suicides, roil of — Funeral ar- 
rangements, etc., 341 
Mont'ferrat, 58 
Montferrat, Marquis de — Chosen as 

Governor by Genoese, 122 
Monzon, Treaty of, 198 
Moreri, 35 
" Mourgues " — Provencal name for 

Monaco, 37, 39 
Murat, 290 
Muratori, loi 



N 
Name : 

Earliest name, 4 
First application of name 
Moncecus to " Port of Her- 
cules," 9 
" Fort Hercules," reversion to, 
during French Revolution, 
285 
" Mourgues " — Provencal name, 
37, 39 
Namur, Siege of, 242 
Naples : 

Angevin rule, period of, 63 
Appointment of Conrad le Loup 

by Louis of Hungary, 105 
Charles VIII of France, Cam- 
paign of, 138-9, 141-2 
Succession to Crown of Naples, 
etc., see Jane I 
Napoleon I and the Napoleonic 
Wars, 290 
Empire, fall of, 291 
English attack on Monaco, 

disastrous explosion, 290-1 
Escape from Elba — Interview 
with Honore V of Monaco, 
293-4 
Warning given by Honore 
to Sardinian Government, 
294, 295 
Hundred Days — English occu- 
pation of Monaco, 295-6 
Traces left in Monaco, 292 
Napoleon III : 

Grimaldi claim to absolute 
sovereignty, acquiescence in, 
329 
Italy, alliance with — Campaign 
of 1858 and Conference of 
Villafranca, 321-2 
Narses the Eunuch — Liguria won 
back from barbarians, un- 
popularity, etc., 23 
Nero, 12, 13 
Nice, 106 : 

French attack (1705), 242 
Petition for closing of Monte 

Carlo tables, 334 
Saracen pirates, Nice freed from, 

by Giballin Grimaldi, 39-40 

Surrender by John Grimaldi to 

Amadeus of Savoy, 11 8-9 



Index 



2^3 



Nice(coM<.)=^ 

Turin, Treaty of — Cession to 

France, 322 
Noli — Grimaldi fief, 65 
Nostredame, Jean de, reference to, 

70, 71 
Nostredamus, reference to, 107 

note 
Novara, Battle of, 321 
Novi, Paul de, dyer elected Doge of 

Genoa, 1506, 148 — Hanged by 

Louis XII, 150 
Noyon, Louis, Bishop of, 272 



Occupations, Protectorates, etc., of 
Monaco, see names of 
Towns and Countries 
Octavius, see Augustus Caesar 
Odos, 28 

Oil Mills, affair of, 312-3 
Olive-tree, introduction by Pho- 

cffisms, 9 
Otho, defeat by Vitellius, 12 
Otho of Brunswick, 108, 112 
Otho the Great : 

Accession to throne of Germany 
as most powerful sovereign in 
Europe, 50 
Marriage, 50 

Presentation to " a Grimaldus " 
of town of Antibes and fortress 
of Mourgues alleged, 37, 39 
Restoration of Empire of 

Charlemagne, 51 
Saracens, expulsion of from 
Europe intended, 32 



Pachiero, Father — Share in revolt 
against Spanish Protectorate, 
202, 204, 205 
Padua, 57 
Palace of Monaco : 
Decay of, 300, 320 
Use made of, during and after 
the French revolution, 289 
and note 



Pannonia, 23 and note 
Paoli, 17 
Papacy : 

Holy Roman Empire, struggle 
with Papacy, 51 
Reform of Papacy by Henry 

III, 52 
Revolt of Papacy — Henry IV 
excommunicated and 
dethroned by Papal 
Bull, 52 
Penance done by Emperor 
at Castle of Canossa, 
53-5 
Schism in Western Church, 
cause of — Popes at Rome 
and Avignon, etc., 93-4, 
109-12 
Hostility of Italians and 
Sicilians to Avignon, posi- 
tion of France, 109 
Papon, 35, 38 

Paris, Treaty of, 18 14— Monaco 
restored to Grimaldis, Tal- 
leyrand's " interested inter- 
vention," 291 
Paris, Treaty of, 1815 — Sardinia, 
Protectorate of Monaco given 
to, 296 
Patroclus, Funeral of — Phoenician 
description of silver bowl 
offered as prize to runners, 
7 
Patron-Saint of Monaco, see Sainte- 

Devote 
Pavia, 57 

Sieges of, 25, 178 
Pemberton, references to, 37, 121 

note, 133, 278 
Pepin d'Heristal, 36, 38 
Peronne, Treaty of, 201, 242 
Pertinax, 13-14 
Perugia, Angelo da, loi 
Petrarch, 96, 98, loi 
Petrarch's Laura — Death from 

plague, 105 
Petruccelli della Gatina, 54 
Philip of Austria, 170 
Philip VI of France : 
Crecy, Battle of, 87-9 
Supported by Grimaldis against 
England, 69, 86-9 
Philip, Duke of Savoy, 167 



3^4 



Index 



Philip II of Spain : 

Character, failure as candidate 

for the Empire, etc., 184 
France, relations with — Inter- 
vention in League warfare, 

183 
philip V of Spain, 236 
Philippa the Catanian, Governess of 

Princess Jane of Naples — 
Encouragement of sneers at 

Hungarian party, 97 
Torture and Death, 102 note 
Phocaean occupation of Tyrrhenian 

coast, 8-9 
Phoenician Theory of founding of 

Monaco, 4-7 
Phoenicians — C haracteristics. 

Colonisation of Mediterranean 

Coast, etc., 6-8 
Pippin — Conquest of Lombards in 

return for Prankish Crown, 

25 
Piracies by Grimaldis, 65, 80, 120 
Pisa, 62 
Pius IX : 

Election to Papacy — Edict of 

liberty and reform, 314 
Flight from Rome in 1848, 319 
Italian federation under, 1850, 

322 
Plague, Louis of Hungary driven 

out of Italy by, 105 
Plessis, Armand du. Cardinal Riche- 
lieu — Policy, wars with Spain, 

etc., 198 
Polar Star, Greek name for, 5 
Pompey, 10 
Pontevez, Anne de — Marriage with 

Lucien Grimaldi, 156 note, 165 
Double wall built round room in 

which Lucien Grimaldi was 

murdered, 187 
Porta, Camilla — Rebuilding of 

Shrine of Laghetto, 211 
Poverty of Principality of Monaco, 

245 
Exhaustion after Napoleonic 

Wars, 292 
Pragmatic Sanction, 258 
Pretenders to various Crowns — 

Rival Dukes and Kings blind- 
ing and poisoning each other, 

28 



Prince etranger — Rank accorded to 
Antoine Grimaldi on his 
marriage, 229, 238 
Prince of Monaco — Title conferred 
on Augustin Grimaldi after 
Pavia, 179 
Princes and Princesses of Monaco, 

see their first names 
Protectorates of Monaco, see names 

of towns and countries 
Provence : 

Avignon, sale to Pope Clement 

VI by Queen of Naples, 104 
Charlemagne's Empire, parti- 
tion of — Provence assigned to 
Lothair, 27 
Count of — Full title, 43 note 
Dialect — Arabic words and 

phrases, 40 
France, Provence left as a legacy 

to, 133 
Kingdom of Provence : 
Formation, 27 

Included in Kingdom of Aries, 
28 
Piedmont, provinces included — 
War with Coimts of Savoy, 
106 
Provinces included in, 27 
Religious Wars — Opposition to 

Henry IV, 184 
Saracens — Establishment in 
Provence, fortress of Fraxi- 
net, 27, 30 
Site, conflict of opinion as to, 

29 
War made upon Saracens by 
William, Count of Provence, 
32 
" Puyguilhem," see Lauzun 
Punic Wars, 10 



Q 



Quadruple Alliance, War of, 257 
Querouailles, Louise de — Rivalry 
with Hortense Mancini, 230 



R 
RadziwiU, Prince and Princess 
Constantin, 338 



Index 



3^S 



Rainier Grimaldi, Admiral : 

Piracies in seas of England, 69 
Retirement to Noli after aban- 
donment of Monaco by 
Charles II of Anjou, 65 
Victories at Meloria and Salerno, 
68 
Rainier Grimaldi, son of the Ad- 
miral, 70 
Rainier of Monaco : 

Joint lord of Mentone, etc., 92 
Louis of Anjoii : 

Bribes offered to Grimaldi to 

desert service of Queen of 

Naples, 107-8 

Campaign against Charles III 

of Naples, service in, 117 

Naples, service of, as Seneschal 

of Piedmont, 105-6 
Reinstatement in Monaco and 
death, 121 
Ranke, reference to, 182 
Raucoux, Battle of, 259 
Ravenna, 23 

Ravenna, Battle of, 1513, 171 
Ravenstein, Philippe de, Governor 

of Genoa in 1505, 146 
Reinaud, reference to, 35 
Rendu, references to, 35, 36, 37, 38, 
39, 41, 44, 45, 64, 67, 81, 126, 
178, 179, 180, 192, 236, 246, 
252, 253, 278, 284, 285, 298, 
301, 303 note, 310, 319 
Rene of Anjou, 126-7, 131 
Republic of Monaco— Alliance with 
France followed by annexa- 
tion, 284 
Restoration of Princes of Monaco 
by Treaty of Paris (1814), 291 
European intervention, 292 
Organisation of restored Prin- 
cipality, 292 
Rey, Jerome — Part played in 
Honore II's revolt against 
Spain, 202, 203 
Richelieu, Alice, Duchesse de, Mar- 
riage with Albert I of Monaco, 
337 
Character, fortune, " Court," 

338-9 
Extension of Monte Carlo conces- 
sion, attitude in regard to 339 
Music, amateur of, 340 



Richelieu, Cardinal de — Policy, 

wars with Spain, etc., 198 
Richilda, 27 
Robert, Friar, 96 
Robert of Geneva, no: 

Election as Pope at Avignon, 

112 
Robert I of Naples— the "Wise," 

91 note, 92 
Alteration of Succession, see 

title Jane I 
Aspirations to throne of Italy — 

Policy aided by Genoese dis- 
sensions, 68 
Grimaldis, loyal service of, 68 
Year of Death, 95 
Robinson, Mary, reference to, 140 
Roccabruna, see Mentone and Roc- 

cabruna 
Rochefoucauld, reference to, 219 
Roman Conquest of Liguria, 10 
Monument erected at La Tur- 

bia, 11 
Roman Road from Nice to Mentone, 

track followed, 11 
Roncy, Comte de — Suitor for hand 

of Louise-Hippolyte, heiress 

of Monaco, 247 
Rovra, Castle of, 76 
Roye, Comte de, 246 
Rudolph of Transjuran Burgundy, 

30 
Ruffo, Margharita, 85 



Sabran, reference to, 192 
Saint-Pierre, Cardinal, in 
Saint-Pol, Count de — Appointment 

as Governor of Genoa, recall, 

120 
Saint-Remy, Seigneurie of, con- 
ferred on Honore II of 

Monaco, 209 
St. Sebastian, Siege of, 257 
Saint-Simon, references to, 207, 

217, 235, 237, 238, 241, 245, 

246 
St. Tropez, 29, 35 
Sainte Devote, Patron-Saint of 

Monaco, 14-7 
Interventions on behalf of 

Monaco, 149, 182 



366 



Index 



Sainte-Suzanne, references to, 35, 

91, 208, 300 
Salerno, Battle of, 68 
Sambracia, Gulf of, 35 
San Severino, Captain-General ap- 
pointed by Queen of Naples, 
107 note 
Saracen Invasions of Europe, 25-6, 
27 
Arabic words and phrases, in- 
troduction into Provenfal 
dialect, 40 
Expulsion of Saracens : 
Nice freed from infidels, de- 
struction of Little Fraxinet, 
39-40 
Otho's, Emperor, intended 
expedition, 32 
Giballin Grimaldi's ardour in 

Saracen-hunting, 39 
Greek fire — Secret filched by 
treachery from Romans of 
the Eastern Empire, 26 
Ligurian littoral, towns clus- 
tered together under protec- 
tion of Genoa, 25 
Provence, establishment in, see 

Provence 
Repulse by Charles Martel and 

Charlemagne, 27 
War cry — Arab " shout of on- 
set," 26 
Sardinia : 

Catalans, revolt against, 77 
Given to Savoy in exchange for 

Sicily, 244 note, 258 
Kingdom of, refer to Savoy and 
Sardinia 
Savona : 

Rising against nobles, 78 
Surrender to Simon Boccane- 
gra, 90 
Savoy and Sardinia : 

Genoese attack on Monaco in 
1506, conduct of Savoy — 
Results, terms of Claudine's 
will, 148, 149 
La Turbia : 
Boundary of Monaco, diffi- 
culties concerning, 125 
Jurisdiction of Savoy, 166 
Mentone and Roccabruna, claim 
to homage for, see Mentone 



Savoy and Sardinia {cont.) : 

Mentone, revolt of, action ol 

Sardinia, 317-8 
Provinces of Piedmont coveted 
by Counts of Savoy — Struggle 
with Rainier Grimaldi, 106 
Sardinian attempts to secure 
Monaco : 
Intervention of Talleyrand in 

1814, 291 
Protectorate conferred on 
Sardinia by Treaty of 
Paris, 1815, 296 
Stupinigi, Treaty of, 296-7 
Tobacco works of Monaco 
closed, 297 
Trenca employed to sound 
Florestan I, 316 
Sardinian declaration of war 

with Italy, 319 
Sicily handed over to Savoy by 
Treaty of Utrecht, 244 — • 
Exchanged for Sardinia, 244 
note, 258 
Turin, Treaty of — Cession to 
France of Nice and Savoy, 322 
for reigning Dukes, Kings, etc., 
see their first names 
Saxe, Maurice de — Military suc- 
cesses, campaign in Flanders, 
etc., 258-9 
Segur, Comte de, references to, 138, 

139, 272 
Septimus Severus — Fortifications 

on Plains of Moneghetti, 14 
Sforza — Dukes of Milan : 

Francesco — Siege of Castle of 
Genoa, 129-30 
Genoa held as fief from the 
Crown of France, 130 
Galeazzo — Revolt of Lambert 

Grimaldi, 131 
Lodovico (The Moor) : 

Ally of Charles VIII of France, 
139, 141 — Change of policy, 
142 
Beatrice d' Este, mourning 

for, 141 
Flight from Milan, 144 
Imprisonment in iron cage at 
LochesbyLouisXII, 150,153 
Leonardo da Vinci, patron of, 
140 



Index 



367 



Sicily : 

Angevin rule — Sicilian Vespers, 

63 
Handed over to Savoy by Treaty 
of Utrecht, 244 — Exchanged 
for Sardinia, 244 note, 258 
Sidonians, 7 

Sidonius, reference to, 22 
Sismondi, references to, 100, 129, 

143 
Slavs, 24 
Solferino, 322 
Solomon, King, 6 

Sophia, Empress — Insulting mes- 
sage to Narses, 23 
Soprani, reference to, 71 
Soils de Monaco, 302 
Spain : 

Charles VIII of France, hostility 

to, 142 
Phoenician trade with, 6 
Spain and Monaco : 

Establishment of Protectorate 
over Monaco — Fighting 
with France, etc. : 
Augustin Grimaldi, Charles 

V's overtures to, 173, 174 
Burgos, Treaty of — Result of 
Leonard Grimaldi's mission, 
174, 175, 183 
Naval action off Nice, bom- 
bardment of Mentone, siege 
of Marseilles, etc., 175 
Pavia, Siege of, 178 — recogni- 
tion of Augustin Grimaldi's 
services, 179 
Revolt of Monaco under Honore 
II, causes, etc. — Struggle 
between France and 
Spain : 
Abuses and extortions of 
Spanish rule, futile protests 
by Honore II, 192, 193, 207 
Childhood of Honore II, 
Valdetare's rule^^Garrison 
handed over to Spain, 
191-2 
Doubts aroused, Spanish sus- 
picions, 193 
Dispelled by Honore's mar- 
riage, 193 
Garrison of Monaco in- 
creased, 199 



Spain and Monaco : Revolt of 
Monaco under Honore II — 
Doubts aroused (cont.) : 
Marriage of Honor6 H's 
heir, suspicions allayed 
by, 201 
French campaigns against 
Spain, effect of troubles at 
La Rochelle, 198 
Honore II's overtures to 
France through Grimaldi of 
Corbons, 199 
Lerins, Isles of, struggle for, 
quarrels of French com- 
manders, 198-200 
Marseilles, attack planned 
from — Further delay, 201-2 
" Moving of Spanish troops," 
plot to admit French during, 
202-4 — Success, 205 
Roussillon, conquest and an- 
nexation by France, 208 
Termination of Struggle — 
Yearly celebration, etc., 
206-7 
Compensation for Spanish 

losses, 209 
Spanish Orders, etc., 
Honore II's letter re- 
turning, 206 
Treaty of Peronne, terms, etc., 
208-9 
Spanish Succession, War of — Part 
played by Monaco : 
La Turbia conquered by the 
French and handed over to 
Monaco, 242 — Reversion to 
Savoy, 243 note, 244 
Louis I of Monaco — Embassy to 

Rome, 236-7 
Loyalty and sacrifices of 

Antoine I, 243 
Nice, French attack on, sur- 
render, etc. — use made of 
Monaco, 242 
Savo3''s breach with France — 
warning given to Vendome by 
Antoine Grimaldi, 242 
Spinola, Aurelia — Marriage with 
Hercules Grimaldi (Hercules 
II), 201 
Laghetto, shrine of, gifts to, 
211 



368 



Index 



Spinola Family, 6i, 65, 68, 78 
Monaco conferred on Niccolo 
Spinola — Guelf and Ghibel- 
line conflict, 66-7 
Sale to Charles Grimaldi in 
1338, 85 
Strategic Value of Monaco, 207 
Street sweepings claimed as per- 
quisite by Honore V, 299, 332 
Stupinigi, Treaty of — ^Terms, etc., 

296-7 
Stura, Province of, 106 
Suabia, Duke of, 49 

see also Frederic Barbarossa 



Tacitus, reference to, 12 
Talleyrand, 237 

Re-establishment of Principality 

of Monaco, 291 
Taranto, Luigi of, see Luigi of 

Taranto 
Taranto, Philip Duke of, 95 
Tarascon — Surrender to Louis of 

Anjou, 107, 108 
Tarlatino — Commander of Genoese 

expedition against Monaco, 

148, 149 
Tarshish or Tartessus, legendary 

riches, 6 
Tess6, Marechal de, 250 note 
Theodoric the Great, description by 

Sidonius, 22 
Thorigny, Comte de, see Goyon- 

Matignon 
Throgmorton, Sir John — Letter to 

Viscount Lisle concerning the 

visit to England of Pietra 

Grimaldi, 213-4 
Tobacco Works of Monaco, closing 

of, 297 
Tortoris, Spirito — Murder of George 

Grimaldi, Baron de Bueil, 152 
Tour d'Auvergne, Louise-Henri- 

ette de la, proposed marriage 

with Honor6 1 1 1 of Monaco, 260 
Trenca, Charles : 

Action on behalf of Mentone in 
its revolt from Monaco, 
315-7, 3i9> 321 

Dismissal from office, 316 
Death, 327 



Trevisa, 57 

Trevisani — Venetian Admiral at 
Siege of Cremona, 123-5 

Trivulzio, Italian house of — Matri- 
monial Alliances with Honore 
II and his sister Jeaime, 193 

Troy, 7 

Tudor, Mary, sister of Henry VIII : 
Intrigue with Francis, after- 
wards Francis I, 169 
Marriages, 167 

Tmrenne, Antoinette de, 120 

Turin, Battle of, 243 

Turin, Treaty of, i860, 322 

Tyre, 4-5 

Tyrrhenian Sea, see Mediterranean 

U 
Urban V, Pope — ^return to Rome 
and subsequent flight to 
Avignon, 109 
Urban VI, Pope : 

Election of, no, iii, 112 
Jane of Naples, deposition of, 
112 
Utrecht, Treaty of— Terms, etc., 

243 note, 244, 258 
Uzes, Due d' — Marriage with Anne- 
Hippolyte Grimaldi, 241 



Valdetare, Prince di : 

Honor6 II, wardship of — Sup- 
port of Spain, etc., 187, 19 1-2, 
201, 207 
Murder of Hercules I, Vengeance 
for, 191 
Valentinois, Duchy- Peerage of : 
Conferred on Honore II by 
Louis XIII of France, Duchy 
descending in female line, 209 
Husband of heiress of Monaco, 
Power given to confer title 
on, 246 
National Assembly, abolition 
by, 283 
Valerius, 13 

Valois, Louis de, Comte d'Alais, 
Governor of Provence, 201 
and note 
Valois, Marguerite de, 167 
Valois, Mary of, 9 



Index 



369 



Valteline Pass, 195, 196 note, 198 
V^nasque Ferriol, Charles de, 35-7 
Vence's Martyrologie, 17 
Vendome, 242 
Venice : 

Charles VIII of France, hostility 

to, 142 
Member of Lombard League, 57 
Rivalry with Genoa, 77 
War against Milan, 123 
Ventos, Sale of Mentone to Charles 

Grimaldi by, 90 
Verdun, Treaty of — Allocation of 
Germany to second son of 
Louis-le-Debonnaire, 49 
Verona, 57 
Versailles, Crusaders' Gallery at, 

41 
Vervins, Treaty of, 1598, 186 
Vespasian — Proclamation as em- 
peror. Overthrow and death 
of Vitellius, 12-3 
Vicenza, 57 

Victor-Amadeus I of Savoy — Mar- 
riage with Christine of France, 
196 
Victor-Amadeus II of Savoy : 
Breach with France, 242 
Claim to Monaco — Claim re- 
fused, 244 
Passion for Louise-Hippolyte 

of Monaco, 248-9 
Success in Italy, 1706, 243 
Utrecht, Treaty of, territories 
obtained by Savoy, 243 note, 
244, 258 
Victor- Emmanuel II of Sardinia : 
Alliance with France against 

Austria — terms, etc., 322 
King of United Italy, proclama- 
tion, 322 
Nice and Savoy, cession to 
France in exchange for Lom- 
bardy, 322 
Vidones, 28 

Viennois, Province of, 27 
Villafranca, Battle at, 258 
Villafranca, Conference of, 322 
Villani, references to, 62, 88 note 
Villarey, General — Governor of 
Mentone under Florestan I, 
314, 315 
Dismissal, 317 



Villeneuve, Marie de, daughter of 
John Grimaldi — Claim on be- 
half of put forward by Barto- 
lommeo Doria, 159 and note — 
Repudiation, 166 
Vinci, Leonardo da — work at Milan, 

140 
Vintimiglia : 

Attack on, by John and Louis 

Grimaldi, 119 
Boccanegra, Simon, surrender 

to, 90 
Governorship conferred on John 
Grimaldi, 145 
Visconti of Milan — "Vipers," 81, 
109 
Bianca, 122 
Philip- Mary : 

Sovereignty of Genoa, 122 
Ugliness and nervousness, 

122 
War with Florence and Venice 
brought about by discarded 
protege, 123 
Vitellius : 

Gluttony — Epithets applied by 

historians, 12 
Otho defeated, 11-2 
Overthrow by Vespasian — 
Death, 13 
Vitry, Marechal de, 199, 200, 201 

note 
Voltaire — Poeme de Fontenoy, 
mention of Maurice Grimaldi, 
259 



W 

Walpole, Horace, reference to, 
276 

Warfare : 

Maritime Alps, Warfare in, in 
centuries immediately pre- 
ceding and succeeding Chris- 
tian era, 10-4 
Tactics introduced by Charles 
III of Naples, 117 

Weiblingen, original form of word 
" Ghibelline," 56 

Weinsberg, Battle of, 56 

Welf, original form of " Guelf," 56 

Welf III of Bavaria, 56 



24 



370 



Index 



William, Count of Provence : 

Saracen stronghold of Fraxinet 

taken, 32-3 
Territory conquered by Grim- 
aldi presented to him alleged, 
see Grimaldi — Sovereignty 
Winter of 1709 in Monaco, 243 

X 

Xenophon, 7 

Y 

Yolande, heiress of Jerusalem — 
Marriage with Frederic 11 of 
Germany, 58 



York, Duke of, brother to 
George III : 
Paris visit — Opinion of the 

" King's Ladies," 276 
Stay at Monaco, 275 — Illness 
and death, 276 
Acknowledgment by George 
III and Duke of Gloucester 
of Prince of Monaco's 
kindness, 277 
La Vieille Legend, 286 



Zurita. 88 note 



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